BigBench. T +33 (0) E agence@tvk.fr W TVK Architectes Urbanistes. A 23, rue Olivier Métra Paris France

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1 BigBench

2 BigBench TVK Architectes Urbanistes A 23, rue Olivier Métra Paris France T +33 (0) E agence@tvk.fr W Contacts: Océane Ragoucy ragoucy@tvk.fr Gemma Mila mila@tvk.fr

3 A big bench for the city Street furniture is the term we use for objects that inhabit the public environment, despite them not being mobile. What this term in fact designates is the non-immutable nature of objects that are liable to change more often than the city s buildings. Urban furniture is today capable of evolving in time more than in space. It is both non-permanent and fixed. Although this bench was originally conceived for Place de la République in Paris, its design and properties make it suitable for other public and private spaces. Due to its solidity and simplicity it is not restricted to any particular environment. Its size enables it to host up to 6 or 7 people, depending on what side they sit, so it is naturally conducive to encounters and conviviality because several groups can use it at the same time. The bench has an armrest at one end to facilitate use by persons with reduced mobility, and people can sit on all three sides of its open end. The armrest and back can also be used as seats, and the armrest can serve as a table or writing surface. And of course in summer one can lie down and relax in the sun. A seat for Place de la République in Paris Redesigning the Place de la République was also an opportunity for TVK to reinvent the tradi - tional Parisian urban furniture repertoire. Our aim was to combine maximum user comfort and minimum encumberment. This was a crucial concern in this traditional venue for major events and mass gatherings, where all obstacles to crowds must be kept to a minimum. For continuity and discretion, most of the new square s urban furniture items are familiar features of Paris daily urban landscape. Only a few characteristic elements were singled out to give the square its new identity. The bench is one of these. TVK replaced the square s original nineteen Ville de Paris benches (Davioud model) with 24 new benches, complemented by a wooden platform in the same spirit. The benches are on the central esplanade and on the north and south pavements. The robustness and simplicity of the bench s materials are designed to withstand the test of time and the elements.

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7 The designers T VK TVK is a Paris-based architecture and urban planning practice. Its multidisciplinary forty-person international team works on public and private projects ranging in scale from the object to the city. Pierre Alain Trévelo and Antoine Viger-Kohler trained in Paris and Harvard and created TVK in TVK has achieved international recognition for its novel and decompartmentalised approach to projects responding to extremely complex realities, notably with the Palmarès des Jeunes Urbanistes in 2005 and the Nouveaux Albums des Jeunes Architectes in TVK is interested in the construction of the city and the metropolis in time. Its aim is to seize the complexity and paradoxical nature of the contemporary city to continue its construction, exploring essential but sometimes neglected themes such as architecture s potential in places determined by other elements, the role of major modern infrastructures, the status of monu mentality, and environmental concerns in metropolitan systems. As one of the components of the urban landscape, street furniture plays a key role in determining the uses of public spaces. A collective and open-mined approach to its conception and design is therefore vital.

8 In detail Dimensions Length: 288 cm Seat height: 45 cm Seat width: 47 cm Back height: 35 cm Description and materials The bench is an assembly of solid oak elements 180 x 220mm in section. The use of wood as fine as oak in such thicknesses and lengths gives the bench its sober and monumental presence. The simplicity of the bench s design and its metallic elements high lights the use of this robust, highquality material. Protection and maintenance The wood is glazed to preserve its natural colour. Unlike varnishes and paints, this glaze is microporous and not film-forming, allowing interaction between the material and the atmosphere and enabling the wood to breathe and preventing scaling. The spacing between each element facilitates cleaning. Installation The bench is delivered assembled. It is fixed in place with four rustproofed screws in the steel base. Cross section on armrest Fabrication and finish The bench s solid oak elements are cut from the best parts of the tree for optimum quality (QPA). Their assembly is discreet, simple and efficient. The elements are spaced 5cm apart and maintained in place by perforated 80 x 80 x 50mm galvanised steel wedges. The galvanised steel base structure is both hard wearing and weather-resistant Cross section Plan BigBench Pierre Alain Trévelo & Antoine Viger-Kohler with Victor Francisco & Vincent Hertenberger TVK Photographs Clément Guillaume Pierre-Yves Brunaud Graphic Design Alexandre Essayie Longitudinal section Dimensions in cm Scale 1/20

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