Overview

Thoughtfully designed public seating from Furnitubes helped transform a bustling thoroughfare into a welcoming community hub on Canterbury's High Street, while respecting the existing natural beauty and ensuring minimal maintenance.

Requirement

Contacted initially by Canterbury City Council, Furnitubes was tasked with reinvigorating the highly-pedestrianised area to create a welcoming space for residents to stop and linger. This included the planned inclusion of seating and planters around five mature trees that provided much-needed shade and biodiversity to the high street. 

The Council required help establishing radius modules to allow for S-shaped and circular seating underneath tree cover, without disturbing the long-established roots, and to minimise maintenance of seating for as long as possible. The trees were to be given pride of place in the planning, building seating around them so that the people who frequented the area could benefit from their shade and loveliness.

Solution

Furnitubes worked with the client to maximise the seating opportunities, interpreting provided measurements and suggesting modular solutions that could take into account the existing trees, tree cover and tree roots. A flow of organic, continuous shapes throughout the installation was chosen to improve the overall aesthetic and community spirit of the installation.

Furnitubes suggested using its 700mm-depth Railroad seating to increase relaxed opportunities for the High Street, allowing for both sides of the bench to serve as seating options. Some seats were also selected with backrests and armrests to make them more inclusive for the elderly and those with mobility issues.