The annual Street Seats Competition was held in Portland, Oregon for Summer 2018. The project involved the development and construction of a seat from reclaimed or recycled materials to be displayed in a public plaza
street seats
Portland is a city populated by bicyclists, and car tires are an increasingly problematic issue in landfills today. Automotive service companies have to pay for tire recycling, and so are eager to donate tires, making it a logical and sustainable choice of material.
Early concepts incorporated use of the complete tire wall to form the cup of the seat, but after cutting, the tire was better used as a sling because of rubber’s natural tensile strength. Cinder blocks were useful in initial weight testing, but a more elegant support was needed.
Research was conducted into the potential use of bent Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) as a support structure. Because of high costs for experimentation, acrylic was an ideal alternate material to study the principles of bending.
With the use of a line bender and heat gun, 1/2” thick sheet acrylic was able to be manipulated into shape. The resulting form is incredibly resilient and has the ability to illuminate when viewed in a nighttime environment.
To emphasize the use of reclaimed materials gummi repurposes discarded car tires, an item that has spent its entire life on the ground, and elevates it into a beautiful sculptural seat.
