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Industrial Design Student Work: A Bench Designed to Shelter Homeless People

Driftwood, by Ellen Hallstrom

By Rain Noe - October 6, 2023

in design.edu | Urbanism

This design for hospitable street furniture is by Ellen Hallstrom, done while studying at Sweden's Lund School of Industrial Design.

"Driftwood: A double-sided bench that can be turned into an enclosed shelter overnight."

"Many public benches are designed to drive homeless people away. Not only making it practically more difficult to find a place to exist in, but also saying 'you're not welcome to exist here at all.'

"Driftwood is an attempt towards a more sympathetic architecture within the public space."

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Peter Wachter

a year ago

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All kinds of psycho-social prognostications why this “won’t work”. Ok, let’s move on. This extremely well thought out design can very easily trigger several fruitful creative paths. Benches in general not intended to shelter the homeless. Benches in remote nature locations that become refuges for the stranded in inclimate conditions or even animal attack. Inspiration for products for RV-ing/Caravanning or much larger shelters or micro houses. A design this elegant should not be swept into the dustbin labeled NO GO. It should serve as a seed crystal for an unknown bounty of heretofore unimagined possibilities. Congratulations and Well Done.

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Net Ong

a year ago

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designed with naive good intentions or promoting to normalize society's problem?

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Iwan nawI

a year ago

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Loving everything about this!

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Thomas O'Keefe

a year ago

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Clever solution, commendable project—homelessness is a hugely relevant issue, especially right now—but this isn’t practical. What is the context? Let’s get some observations and interviews to understand how people without homes live. The object will lose the functionality of a public bench and become a home with the constraints of a public bench, so why not just make a home?

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  Thomas O'Keefe
  
  a year ago
  
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  Hi Thomas
  Long response, but in summary I share your sentiment ..... lovely lateral thinking but more than likely out of touch with its practicality in real life circumstance.
  The bench is likely to lose its original function all together as it becomes a 'home' and potentially a rather unsavory place for a member of the public to sit. That is of course unless a cleaning crew comes around to sanitize the benches every 24 hours!
  People who use these 'sleeping quarters' don't necessarily keep office hours and the bench may well be occupied throughout the day.
  Another point, for example, during a rainy day fights may also break out between potential users as to who is entitled use the bench shelter .... the person who used it the night before or first come first served.
  How about build and put one in place and watch accompanied by police and 911 at the ready if it gets ugly . . .
  Build a managed shelter for 50+ homeless people (bunkbed barracks style) and make a practical difference.
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Roly S

a year ago

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I love this - my first thought was "what about the gaps in the wood" and then I saw the profile. A really nice piece.

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