After a recent walkabout in Sutton Town Centre, it occurred to me that grit bins are a necessary but often ugly piece of street furniture. The grit bins in Sutton are bright yellow in order to be easily visible, but add clutter to the street and sometimes act as a barrier to pedestrians. The design below attempts to consolidate a grit bin into a bench, in order to achieve the objective of removing street clutter and to also combine the features of a well designed bench and the features of a well designed grit bin.
In my opinion a well designed street bench should be:
- Durable
- Comfortable to sit on throughout the year
- Drainable
- Easy to clean
- Comfortable
- Sleepable
- Beautiful
A well designed grit bin should be:
- Easy to shovel grit out
- Capacious
- Protected by weather/waterproof
- Easy to open and close
- Accessible for deliveries of grit
- Beautiful
Problems with the design:
- The design is not accessible for everyone and needs arm rests
- Without building a prototype it is difficult to know how comfortable the bench actually is
- The design is conceptual and not detailed, for example there is nothing holding the slats of wood in place and the wood in some areas is paper thin.
Good things about the design
- The bench is made from wood, so should be comfortable to sit on in winter (unlike stone!)
- Its durable
- It is minimalist
- It has a curved back to increase comfort
- The grit is easy to access from the front. It has a lid which opens and the slats of wood can be lowered to increase accessibility.
- Grit can be poured in from the back of the bench as well
