Urban Chair is a design competition with the aim of developing innovative and interactive prototypes for seaters/benches/modules that can be placed in a park, street, plaza or any other kind of outdoor socio-urban zone. Urban furniture is the link between a public space and the people encapsulated within. Community seaters are the catalyst for public interaction as they create a setting for sitting, resting and othersimilar activities. They are responsible for drawing people together and starting the process of interaction and dialogue.

Street Furniture is an important toolfor creating a sense of identity and place making. Effective and quality furniture in a public setup creates an intrinsic relationship between people and urbanscape. Industrial zeitgeist and its mass production methods have eliminated the ‘”design” from the process of creating new furniture. Though it helped in creating a sense of continuity at a macro level, street furniture became obsolete, bleak and rigid. 

The competition invites designers to create dynamic furniture to be placed in zones of social and public exchange. The product should be more than just a sitting module and offer multiple ways for users to interact with it. It should become an important symbol for the zone and stimulate greater social interaction among the people. There are no specific area/volumetric constraints and the intervention can be a single bench for a couple of users, cluster of individual seaters or a larger module that can accommodate multiple people (depending on the participant’s narrative). The furniture should be fun and interactive for people, allowing them a sense of customization of the space. It may also be able to a host other auxiliary activity like mild relaxation, resting, eating etc. The furniture should be considered as a piece of public art and have a sculptural value to it.

All factors that are conducive for an enhanced experience like comfort, ergonomics, durability, accessibility (disabled friendly) and visibility should be considered important while designing the module. Urban chair is an initiative to make our overall experience of a public space richer and create meaningful and homogenous public furniture for the future. The participants are free to choose their intervention area for placing the furniture but it should be necessarily in leisure, social zones (parks, plazas, sidewalks etc.).

Registration & Timeline

The competition is open to everyone in the world (architects, students, engineers etc.). You can participate individually or in a team. A team can have a maximum of three members only.

Early registration: - 1st June 2020- 31st July 2020

For foreign nationals: 60 EUR + taxes (per team)

For Indian nationals: 1800 INR + taxes (per team)

Standard registration: - 1st August 2020- 30th August 2020

For foreign nationals: 80 EUR + taxes (per team)

For Indian nationals: 2100 INR + taxes (per team)

Submission deadline: 31st August 2020

Result: 25th September 2020

*All deadlines are 11:59 PM- 00:00 IST (India)

- Participants may register by filling the registration form and submitting it with appropriate payment through our secure payment gateways at the competition's website. 

- The participants will receive their teamcode within 48 hours of completing the payment successfully.

- Teamcode will be sent primarily to the email address provided to PAYUMONEY/PAYPAL.

Discount

Group discounts apply for a minimum of 5 teams from one particular architecture school/university as our initiative to promote more participation from students. Send us the following details at [email protected] to avail the offer.

- Names of all the participating team members and their respective team leaders.

- Name of the university.

- School ID proofs of the team leaders.

Note: It will not be possible to amend or update any information relating to your registration including the names of team members once validated.

Awards

Winning participants will receive prizes totaling INR 2,00,000 with the distribution as follows:

- First prize- INR 1,00,000/- + Certificate 

- Second prize- INR 60,000/- + Certificate

- Third prize- INR 40,000/- + Certificate

- 10 Honorable mentions

Winners and honorable mentions will be published on our website and other international architecture magazines and websites partnered by us.

Terms and Conditions

Please see the terms and conditions section on website.

Competition Project Disclaimer

This is an open international competition hosted by archasm to generate progressive design ideas. There are no plans for the bench to be built. The competition is organized for education purpose only.

Download the competition brief from here: Archasm_Urban Chair_Briefs.pdf 

Top image courtesy of archasm

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