Korean architect Yong Ju Lee has installed this circle-shaped public furniture with the diameter of 30meter (almost 100 feet) within Seoul’s Hangang Park. Yong Ju Lee designed the project, which was submitted as part of the Hangang Art Competition, using a computer algorithm that generated the bench’s three-dimensional geometry. Root Bench allows visitors to the park to lean, sit, or lie on its sprawling ‘branches’, which are elevated above the ground at different heights.
While communicating each other, visitors can feel comfortable in resting space and enjoy the art piece at the same time. The bench comprises three different types of furniture, set at three different heights: a child’s chair (250mm), an adult’s chair (450mm), and a table (75mm). This configuration means that visitors of all shapes and sizes can occupy the bench it whatever way they want, whether they are in large groups or more intimate company. Combined with the use of wood, the rhythmic form of the bench allows it to blend into its setting, blurring the boundary between artificial installation and natural environment.
The art piece designed by computer algorithm presents dynamicity from three-dimensional geometry. The metal frame with concrete footing supports the overall form as the main structure and wooden deck covers it. By applying familiar material for finishing, it is easy to use and maintain as a comfortable seat. As well as suggesting the complete shape of a circle, Root Bench is fused into the grass and blurs the boundary between artificial installation and natural environment.
To articulate spreading-out branch intensively, the reaction-diffusion system is applied to the design process. This mathematical model describes the change in space and time of the concentration of one or more chemical substances: local chemical reactions in which the substances are transformed into each other, and diffusion which causes the substances to spread out over a surface in space. Through the algorithm from it, the overall radial form is generated with the foreground (installation) merging into its background (grass).
