Project Overview

A Solar-Powered Bench That Spins Ever So Slowly harvests sunlight through custom solar panels, generating the power to slowly spin both day and night. This whimsical motion offers visitors a playful opportunity to change visitor perspectives on public space through slow rotation. Community members come together and while away time, as their seat spins gently in the sunshine, offering an opportunity to look afresh at a local vista while communing with the natural environment. Sweet moments are created as strangers meet each other’s gaze from bench to bench as they spin. Additionally, smaller people’s feet hang off the ground in a childlike way, while taller users need to playfully 're-plant' their feet every couple of metres as the bench slowly spins.

Organisation

ENESS

Team

Nimrod Weis: Artist and Designer
Chris Newbury: Industrial Designer

Project Brief

A Solar-Powered Bench That Spins Ever So Slowly is a blend of public realm art and seating that offers an interactive experience by way of harvested sunlight through embedded solar panels. Each bench is shaped like a retro 60s flower graphic with the aerial view being reminiscent of a plot of flowers oscillating and spinning in the sunshine. In addition, mid-century furniture aesthetics are referenced – a period when new synthetics were revolutionising manufacturing techniques. An additional entertainment feature of this public realm artwork is that as it interacts with the sun, spinning faster on brighter days and slower under cloud cover.

Project Innovation/Need

A Solar-Powered Bench That Spins Ever So Slowly offers a unique interactive experience in public realm that enables gentle interactions between friends, family and strangers. The intention was to create a work that innovates within the area of public realm by being functional, sustainable and one that inspires a different way of interacting. By harvesting sunlight the benches move under their own steam – without intervention. This intention makes a statement about the future of public infrastructure and what energy sources are being used for light, movement and animation.

Design Challenge

The primary design challenge was to find a solution with regard to the limitations involved in rotomolded recycled materials. Current standard industry practice is for a separate supplier to recycle all off-cuts, this process means that the only colour available is black. We overcame this issue by doing our own recycling: sorting factory floor off-cuts from the rotomoding supplier into the right sized swarf/granules to create our own subtle, hand-made colour palette. This process also enabled us to create one-of-a-kind segments for each seat.

In addition, there were many stages of design to ensure that the movement created was smooth, and that at a certain stage of resistance for safety purposes the benches stop spinning.

Sustainability

The benches are made from rotomolded Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE), which is an excellent candidate for recycling unlike other polyethylene. The unique, speckled finish is achieved through the mix of various recycled pieces and the colours are inspired by energy and the sun. Custom round solar panels are embedded in the top of the benches enabling sunlight to be harvested and stored: ‘sustaining’ the fun day and night.