The bench was designed by a team of School of Form students: Liza Nalewajko, Agata Germain, Witold Holeksa and Daniel Haddock. “FALBA” was created as a symbol of Polish-Austrian friendship. The furniture celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Polish Institute in Vienna. The new bench can be used by everyone.
The piece of furniture stands on a square in the oldest part of Vienna, in the vicinity of historic buildings. In designing the bench, the young designers were guided by the idea of creating a place to rest for a while. Its shape is intended to facilitate contact with another person. The designers gave it the form of an arch, and the curves emphasise the comfort and openness of the piece of furniture.
The bench consists of a main seating area and a smaller, oval-shaped section that allows for different positions. For older users, a handrail has been installed to make it easier to sit down and stand up.
In the ‘FALBA’ project, Dr Joanna Jurga provided substantive support to the students. The students first analysed the target location in order to match the design with the surroundings.
The whole team put a lot of effort into creating a stable frame, protecting the materials by impregnating, varnishing and painting so that the furniture is resistant to various weather conditions, reports School of Form.
There was also a hidden symbol in the construction. It is the number ’50’, referring to the 50th anniversary of the Polish Institute. The number ‘5’ can be found in the aforementioned railing, while the ‘0’ has been interpreted in the form of a small table.
During the conceptual process, we made 83 3D models from which we selected our final solution. The name of the project was inspired by the word ‘valance’, which also reflects the visual aspect of our logo, in which the letters form the shape of a bench. Over the past few months, we have spent more than 700 hours on ‘FALBA’ during design meetings and working in the carpentry and joinery workshop. The work has been greatly accelerated by the CNC milling machine in the joinery workshop. We proved to be an efficient and effective team, and the success of our project proved that together we can really achieve a lot. We are grateful for the trust of the Polish Institute in Vienna and the Vienna City Council. Let’s keep it up! – conclude the authors of the project.
photo: Patryk Brzeźnicki
source: School of Form
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