Eight Bay Area designers created interpretations of public benches for the Works in Progress III design exhibition during San Francisco’s Art Week, using materials such as salvaged local wood and 3D-printed ceramics.
Curated by designer Kate Greenberg and co-founder of studio Office of Tangible Space Kelley Perumbet, Works in Progress III features work by eight local designers including Nick Polansky and Alex Schofield.
Greenberg and Perumbet commissioned the designers to develop bench concepts for the third iteration of the Works in Progress exhibition series, the first of which debuted in 2024 and featured stools.
“We thought to ourselves: ‘How great would it be if the benches in our landscape were highly particular to the craftsperson’s perspective, offering an arena for surprise, creativity, and novelty?’,” said the pair.
The resulting pieces were displayed among soft green fabric screens at a gallery space at the California College of the Arts, which supported the show.
Oakland-based architectural designer Alex Schofield created a bench with a “seat for humans” and a “seat for non-humans” from a plane of reclaimed Douglas fir and a pillar of interlocking 3D-printed ceramic bricks.
The mound of ceramic is intended to attract lichen and moss to its surface so that it eventually grows over its volume.
“My material is not much of a ‘material’, but a cohabitant,” said Schofield. “Lichen and moss grow together, utilizing a material surface as a scaffold, to grow and prepare an ecosystem of other plants.”
The designer previously created “scaffolds” for underwater creatures with 3D-printed calcium carbonate to facilitate the regrowth of endangered coral reefs.
Architect Nick Polansky furthered his exploration of zero-waste milling for his piece, Split No.9. The bench is made of a single salvaged cedar beam that was partially spliced in various places and then stretched open to create a lattice-like volume.
Polansky then pushed a series of salvaged copper pipes into either end of the bench and rested the structure on two granite stones.
The piece builds upon Polansky’s last decade of work exploring the kerf-cutting of timber and the “active bending” of wood.
Other work in the show includes the blocky, solid Leftover Bench made of salvaged old-growth redwood by designer Hanneke Lourens, informed by the “random objects” pushed together to form public furniture in South Africa, where she was born and raised.
The Leftover Bench explores the contrast in public space between South Africa and the US.
“South Africa continues to experience a public space deficit: a lack of developed and safe communal spaces, particularly in lower-income areas,” said Lourens.
“Conversely, Northern California’s coastline and forests are littered with not only functional but beautiful outdoor furniture.”
The show also features work by Brooke Intracha of Studio Ouli, Mac McComb, Michael Mellon, Ben Peterson, and Adrien Seg.
Works in Progress III is on show as part of San Francisco Art Week, an annual week in late February where a series of design and art events take place across the city, including FOG Design + Art.
The photography is by Sahra Jajarmikhayat
Works in Progress III is on show at the CCA Campus Gallery in San Francisco from 24 January to 7 February. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.
