Landscape Forms recently collaborated with Designworks to launch Typology - an innovative collection of outdoor seating & lighting. Featuring three lighting models and a modular, customizable ribbon bench, the collection was designed to create a magnetic and immersive user experience.
"Working with a world-class design firm like Designworks is a special opportunity to push boundaries both aesthetically and technologically, and that's exactly what we did," stated Landscape Forms Chief Creative Officer, Kirt Martin. "The resulting collection forms sculptural, conspicuous installations that are functional but more importantly stand out as works of art. Each component alone could be the centerpiece of the site, but when working in concert, the statement this collection makes is truly inspiring."
Each piece has distinct and memorable design features, but the overall sculptural quality and the artistic use of lighting within each component enable the collection to make a larger, unified statement.
On the ground, the ribbon bench serves as a centerpiece for the collection. Modular segments in a straight configuration and two different degrees of small and |large radius enable the bench to meander seamlessly throughout the landscape. It defines spaces, connects spaces, guides pedestrians, and can even form amphitheater-like circular or semicircular hubs that encourage community interaction.
On each modular segment, a thin layer of extruded ultra-high performance concrete drapes like a mantle over cast metal supports to express an elegance, refinement and seemingly impossible lightness. Soft, rounded edges invite comfort and relaxation. Contrasting the smooth, radiused form of the concrete profiles, the cast metal feet and end caps - with faceted surfaces like cut gems - communicate heft, angularity and precision in manufacturing. Protrusions on the underside of the concrete profiles nestle seamlessly into a support structure, enabling the components to join without fasteners.
The central gap between the two concrete profiles facilitates water drainage, but also serves as a mounting point for optional backrests, armrests and extended functional surfaces to be implemented in strategic locations throughout the installation. Emanating from within the ribbon bench, integral downward-facing lighting illuminates the space around the feature, eliminating glare and creating an illusion that the entire structure almost levitates. Metal screens available in a variety of perforation styles protect the ribbon bench's internal components and prevent the ingress of pests.
Also illuminating the ground, LED path lights guide users throughout the space. Like a small-scale, vertical version of the ribbon bench, a concrete mantel encases the stainless steel core of the Path Light to provide a premium feel and strong continuity in design.
Ring lights and stick lights reach upward, artfully illuminating the sky and guiding people to the space. Like ethereal floating halos, ring lights are stunning fixtures recognized instantly from almost a mile away. A circular strip of LEDs creates a solid ring of ambient light that, when viewed from underneath, is like a looking glass to the sky.
Stick lights break from lighting tradition such that the pole itself is one solid source of light. These vertical columns of warm white or colored light stake claim to the site, accompanying the ribbon bench across its diverse configurations, and creating prominent visual landmarks that draw people in to the site.
Photos: Courtesy of Landscape Forms