Overview

Broadbent Studio designed and produced fun and quirky sculptural seating for the breakout garden spaces of the Project Violet development at Sci-Tech Daresbury in Cheshire.

Three pairs of future-specs can be seen arranged on a single seating surface as though left on a desk. The oversized frames provide backrests and armrests. The glass lenses relate to the particular vision they represent, such as x-ray vision, gamma-ray vision, etc.

To anyone of a certain age, trying to visualise what lies beyond the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum brings to mind mail-order adverts for x-ray specs seen as a child on the back pages of comics. The fact every child knew they wouldn't work didn't stop them wanting a pair, because the mere thought of being able to see the as-yet-unseen is so compelling. This compelling thought is the same one that lies behind the impulse to undertake scientific research. It is the desire to see into the future.

Broadbent Studio creation

As artists and designers, Broadbent Studio's idea was to develop the concept of x-ray specs and create a series of oversized future-specs, resulting in brightly colourful specs with distinctive optical patterns representing x-ray vision, gamma-ray vision, infrared vision, dark energy vision, dark matter vision, and parallel time vision.

About Project Violet

Project Violet is part of the development at Sci-Tech Daresbury. Its completion is a landmark moment for world-class high-tech business and leading-edge science in the North West. Violet encompasses two buildings (V2 and V3) providing 12,000 sq ft each, and one building (V1) of 19,000 sq ft. Major landscaping improvements have been made around the Sci-Tech Daresbury campus.