With his most ambitious installation ever placed in the English urban fabric, the international designer Paul Cocksedge has transformed more than a thousand scaffolding boards into a large multi-purpose structure full of undulating curves.
His name is "Please sit down", Please Be Seated. It is a real social sculpture for Broadgate, the largest pedestrianized neighborhood in London.
A work of art in which to sit, the manifestation of a dynamic beauty. The destruction of the modern concept of urban "decor" in favor ofidea of "connective harmony".
The installation was created in collaboration with a design agency as part of this year's London Design Festival.
Please Be Seated has been placed in a forecourt, Finsbury Avenue Square, as a physical representation of the different rhythms of a community: its wooden curves cover a diameter of over 15 meters, with "spiers" up to 3 meters high.
You can use their back to lie down or sit down, or you can go through the arches to sit in the more internal spaces or to move away.
It was obtained from 1151 wooden construction site scaffolding, transformed into three concentric wavy "ribbons".
"Every single aspect of the installation is connected to the environment in which it is located and to the function it intends to perform," said Cocksedge at the presentation press conference. "The curves rise and fall to create arches and benches, points of shade and places to lie down or sit, and even passages to cross while walking".
In the special pavilion set up within the Design Festival, in addition to the inspiring philosophy of the work, there is also a photographic exhibition with the phases of realization.
Collective harmony: occupying loosely
Please Be Seated crosses the border between a handcrafted object and a design solution. It occupies the entire area of the square but without blocking the "natural breathing" and social function. It is a perfect example of harmony.
Consolate and redeem from that absurd tendency to make our cities hostile to people by removing their shelter, public fountains, resting and meeting spaces.
Please Be Seated will remain in place until 11 October next, and I wonder why they don't leave her there.
