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Ergonomic Street Furniture?
"Lumbo-dorsal support elements" for subway station platforms
These odd-looking blue protuberances, installed at the Provenza station in Barcelona, were initially mistaken by passersby as some form of bicycle parking.
In fact, they're ergonomic pieces of street furniture:
"25º is the name of a lumbo-dorsal support element that allows the back to rest and generates a balanced, comfortable and healthy posture. Supporting the back relaxes the muscles that we have on both sides of the spine and causes the stretching of the spine, allowing more flexibility to our trunk and improving its ability to twist."
"They are anthroposomatic supports that cause a more comfortable posture. Due to its structure, which causes the user to relax the muscles on both sides of the spine when supporting the back, the support relieves tension in the vertebral musculature to induce a balanced posture."
"The shape of this support, starting from 25º from the upper part, adapts to the body through a variable inclination, the result of tests carried out on people of different sizes and builds. Produced in 2mm-thick machined and welded sheet metal."
These were designed by architect and ergonomist Antonio Bustamante and industrial designer Marc Llagostera.
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Comments
Since a user must remove their backpack before using this device, perhaps a wall mounted hook could be provided?
Anything to keep from making benches that homeless people might lay on, right? Wouldn't want any sort of human comforts afforded them, the filthy untermenschen they are. /s
Providing areas for the homeless is not the solution.
Not all areas have the room for benches, which take up standing space, are expensive and must be maintained. I can think of many sections of the nearby subway system that are too narrow to have benches (especially standing areas next to stairs). I see these as additional to benches, not replacements.
Well in the images that are in this article, roughly 50px above this comment section, the platforms are more than spacious enough to have benches. And all people would rather sit down than stand given the option when having to wait, hence the reason benches or seats or literally any kind of flat surface existed in waiting areas for public transit for hundreds of years until assholes decided that inconveniencing poor people was more important.
I'm not going to argue that someone isn't choosing these partially to avoid giving homeless a place to rest, but It's quite a statement to say that everyone always prefers benches. I think there are many times when I would choose this over a bench, mostly depending on whether I had just walked a ways or had been sitting for a while on a previous leg of my journey.
Well it is an interesting idea, but the form is neither inviting nor self-explanatary. The fact some passangers thought these were some sort of bike storage really says it all. I have seen better solutions in other countries where a narrow ledge type seat has been added to areas that are too narrow for benches. Regarding the comments about anti-homeless measures, that certainly happens in a lot of places, the problem is homelessness is best adressed by giving them room and preventing homelessness in the first place. In some countries authorities run more frequent but shorter trains so you don't need to wait for a train for more than a few minutes. Stations can also be designed to minimize areas where homeless people and anti-social types can hang out. In Copenhagen they have minimised waiting times and corridors. But where a rest area is needed, there are benches.