1x1 Urban Furniture System by Mykolas Seckus and Antonio Gandolfo is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 Golden A' Design Award in Street Furniture Design Competition Category.
GoldStreet Furniture· 2020
1x1 Urban Furniture System
by Mykolas Seckus and Antonio Gandolfo
Client: MA projects
Golden A' Design Award Winner in Street Furniture Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #102377The Design
About 1x1 Urban Furniture System
1x1 is a modular urban furniture system for public spaces. Each element works alone as a bench, table, planter or lamppost, or in groups that form small outdoor areas. All parts share the same standardized frame, the same materials and the same fixing methods. Timber, precast concrete and stainless steel are used. Components are produced off site and then assembled on site, which reduces shipment size. The system can be expanded or reduced by adding or removing elements, so both permanent and temporary use is possible.
The Recognition
About the Golden A' Design Award
1x1 Urban Furniture System is a Golden A' Design Award winner, an immensely prestigious recognition granted to first-rate, marvelous, and outstanding designs. Golden winners are exceedingly innovative, visionary, and glamorously dazzling creations that reflect the prodigy, wisdom, and prowess of their designers. 1x1 Urban Furniture System is expected to be a highly praised, trendsetting, and monumental invention that delivers unprecedented value. This Golden A' Design Award-winning design is a spectacular, respected project that highly benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. 1x1 Urban Furniture System creates intense feelings of desire, evokes passion, encourages creativity, and fascinates us.
Where to Get It
Urban Furniture and Public Space Design Services
We combine landscape architecture and industrial design to create innovative urban furniture systems. Our modular solutions transform public spaces with flexible, scalable designs that respond to site-specific needs and evolve with communities.
Contact UsInterviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
The main principle behind the design is to have an adaptable system able to fit different programmes and contexts needs. The family of urban furniture “1X1” can be scaled up and down in three dimensions, thus filling up the void space in an urban fabric. There were three main inspiration sources starting from scaffolding structure and Rubik cube to Dieter Rams ‘‘Vitsoe 606 Universal Shelving System’’.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
We wanted to imagine a modular three-dimensional grid made out of simple street furniture elements. We thought about the production and assembling process, likewise keeping low manufacturing and maintenance costs. Most of the components are standard in heavy production.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
Since the beginning we planned to realize this project in the area it was designed for as an initial source of inspiration. We analyzed an island on the southeast of Copenhagen-Refshaleøen, which was in need of this kind of intervention due to a multitude of reasons, as this post-industrial area has never seen a proper public space regeneration. Besides that, the design can be adapted to any area, need, or city around the world in an appropriate setting. For this reason we would like to see the project held in production by a company and hopefully this might just happen thanks to the amazing opportunity we are receiving by the A Design Award team after winning the golden prize.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- The design is a unique modular urban furniture family. Furniture elements work both as stand-alone urban furniture pieces as well as a small scale public realm with adjustable programs. Design can be described as flexible, scalable, industrial, modular urban furniture which can work as a permanent or temporary public space intervention. Due to the intelligent use of materials design achieves high optimization as all elements use the same standardized frame structure likewise common materials and fixing methods.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Bench: 1000mm x 1000mm x 460mm
Table/Platform: 1000mm x 1000mm x 60mm
Lamppost: 100mm x 100mm x 1000mm
1m. Planter: 1000mm x 1000mm x 1000mm
0.5m Planter: 1000mm x 1000mm x 500mm
1m.Pipe: 100mm x 100mm x 1040mm
0.5m. Pipe: 100mm x 100mm x 540mm
0.25m. Pipe: 100mm x 100mm x 290mm
Additional information and drawings are inside the PDF document. - Tags
- Industrial, Modular, Scalable, Interactive, Optimized
- Production Technology
- Materials:
Timber (Local or Baltic Birch)
Concrete (Precast)
Steel (Stainless Steel)
All the elements would be manufactured off-site and then brought for assembly to the site, thus optimizing the shipment size and convenience of production.
Realization Technology:
Manufacturing would be quite conventional since there is no complex geometry involved. Concrete would be precast, timber parts cut using usual machines and steel parts would be coming from semi-finished elements welded together. - Design Challenge
- One of the hardest challenges was how to make individual elements work together in a vertical and horizontal structure layout. Furthermore, how to minimise material options as well as fixing methods while creating a robust and feasible design proposal.
- Research
- In the world, with continuous globalization and mass production, we forget to address the need for individuality. While in architecture it is a common understanding to respond to a site's specific needs and spatial qualities, street furniture is usually the victim of generic design. The industry is moving towards supply by demand model with local solutions and the customer having an increasingly higher voice in customization. 1x1 modular furniture design attempts to address these concerns
- Inspiration
- Design derived from the inspiration of a post-industrial site Refshaleoen, Copenhagen. Due to a comprehensive understanding of the site qualities, was pointed out the concern that the site would not have an extensive public realm, thus it was retrieved to hypothetically provide it through a multitude of small interventions. Furthermore, apart from the inspiration of rich and unique site qualities, the concept was influenced by insights of scaffolding structure and Dieter Rams shelving system 606.
- Project Duration
- The project is a conceptual design with design inspiration deriving from Refshaleoen, Copenhagen. Though design could be implemented and used in other sites, preferably within an industrial setting
- Operation Flow
- The system can work as individual furniture piece (bench/planter) or in groups forming small outside spaces (park/urban farm). While one might initially need only a small seating place outside their facility, another season might ask for a larger space where increasing numbers of visitors and clients could be accommodated. 1x1 design allows to expand or shrink by either adding or taking away individual elements. Furthermore, there is no need for a long-term commitment in case something changes.
- Team Members
- Mykolas Seckus
Antonio Gandolfo - Image Credits
- credits for visuals:
Antonio Gandolfo & Mykolas Seckus
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