Places to sit in Huet Square, Sibiu

Authors’ Comment

The furniture built for the Huet Square is reversible and relocatable, yet arising out of the specific and knowledge conditions of the specific context. The reason of the project was that of shaping places and of bringing people to the historic square in the medieval core of Sibiu. It creates places for locals and for visitors and allows for temporary buses, such as a farmers' market.
The furniture is independent from the buildings, it does not require the felling of any tree; moreover, it bows to nature, as, through its geometry, it shapes shaded spots under the trees, spots to read in, to relax in, to gaze from, to meet in. The project defines limits for the extension of public or commercial activities in the square. Our mind was set on "sewing together” the continuous front of houses together and the space of the square.
Thus. we noticed areas where we suggested similar activities. The nuances underlined the creation of several types of furniture, which serve different purposes, the „we can see you”, „zigzag” and "lichen” benches.
The „we can see you'" bench was inspired by the 1989 "Baltic Chain", when people in all three Baltic states claiming independence joined their arms, creating a human chain. This reference inspired us in creating a long piece of furniture, similar to the „we can see you” action-an extended civic protest addressing authoritarian evolutions in the Romanian society. The scale of this long bench maybe exceeds the scale place in length, but responds to recent history
The „zigzag” benches are a place to stay, a place to charge your phone, to have a look at a public information panel, to lie in the shadow. Their positioning delimits the area up to which the public function of the building on that side of the square can be extended. The furniture is made of steel sheet painted in electrostatic field, of a pastel greenish grey to highlight its inclusion in the palette of the place. This bench articulates the buildings and the space of the square, zigzagging among the trees, making the most of nature and suggesting this fluid gesture that surrounds the church.
From place to place, around the patches of greenery surrounding the trunks of trees, one can cut across this furniture. It therefore does not obstruct the pedestrian and vehicle circulation pathways.
The „lichen” benches are modular elements, placed next to other, defining spaces under the trees. They are a reverence to nature, their geometry feeding on nature’s manner of growth. They are made of concrete cast in a glass fibre mould.
On high school’s square we proposed cylindrical semi-spherical objects, like luminous „squares” you can sit on or lie on. The base of these bodies would diffuse light, through the in-built LED stripe, hidden by the detail distancing the furniture for the flooring.