Provision of seating needs careful thought. In supervised sites or those attached to day centres, outdoor classrooms or buildings, seats and other outdoor furniture are a useful addition. Seats and rests are appreciated by disabled or elderly, and may make accessible a walk that would otherwise be too tiring. However, seats often become a focus for unsocial activities, attract litter and are subject to vandalism.
On sites that are not supervised, seats are best placed in open locations, overlooked from buildings or roads, but not so near to housing that their use causes problems for local residents. In particular, seats tend to be a meeting place for young people, and may either fulfil a useful social role, or be a focus for unsocial behaviour. Even a fairly well-behaved group of youths may appear threatening, and can be enough to discourage others from walking past or using the site.
Avoid ‘cul-de-sacs’ or sites surrounded by bushes or trees. The best sites for sitting, sunny, open and with an interesting view, are also the safest. Two or three seats grouped together, spaced sufficiently to be comfortably occupied by people who don’t know each other, but near enough to give security in numbers, are probably better than scattered seats out of view of each other. ‘Perches’ or rests can be provided at intervals for people who need them, but which are not comfortable enough to encourage others to linger.
Seats or other furniture which attracts unsocial activities should be removed, to break the pattern of behaviour.
Seats and benches
Seating can be informal and low cost, using logs, timber and other materials available cheaply or from the site itself. These will have a limited life, are difficult to secure against vandalism, and may be unsuitable for use by disabled or elderly infirm people, who may need armrests to help them up to a standing position.
Seats of stone, brick or concrete should be durable and secure against vandalism, but only build them in sites where you are fairly sure they will not attract unsocial behaviour, or you will only have the job of later demolishing them.
Low walls and banks can be adapted into seating by topping with flat stones or timber. Very large blocks of stone have been used on some sites to deter vehicle access, and these may be used as informal seats.
A large range of seats and park benches are available from suppliers of park and outdoor furniture. They are mostly well-designed, durable, comfortable but expensive, and need to be secured into concrete bases for security. They are a good investment for supervised sites where they will have frequent use, especially by elderly or disabled who will appreciate their comfort and the provision of arm rests, to ease getting up from the sitting position.
Constructing a simple seat or bench is a useful project in its own right, and one which most people will feel able to tackle. Various designs are shown below. Arm rests are more difficult to fit securely, and if these are thought necessary, the location is likely to be one which will merit the purchase of a commercial product.
Seats should be 450-500mm high, with a top that is either free draining, or constructed with a slight slope to shed water. There should be a heel space of at least 100mm beneath the seat to make it easier to rise from the sitting position. Tops need to be securely fitted to supports or bases, which themselves need to be either very heavy, or secured to the ground. Timber should be free of splinters. Hardwood is best.
Various types of reclaimed materials can be used. Reclaimed timber from building demolition or refurbishment is available from scrapyards. Smaller size pieces of hardwood can be used for slatted timber benching, or larger pieces used as a single slab. Scrap furniture can yield quite large pieces of hardwood, which can be adapted in various ways.
The bench top can be attached to a timber frame, set well into the ground. 100mm square fence posts of preserved softwood are suitable, as they are easy to cut and join to make strong secure joints. Timber supports should be set about 500mm into the ground, in concrete. Bench tops can be secured to timber supports by hardwood dowels, glued into drilled holes, which are more difficult to remove that metal fixings. Thick galvanised wire can be stapled into routered grooves along timbers and over joints to deter saw-bearing vandals or thieves.
Wooden seats around trees are always popular and give a shady place to sit in summer, but without feeling enclosed, and make a virtue out of ‘lollipop’ trees in mown grass. A big low seat will look more attractive than a small, higher one, and can double as a table or something for children to climb on. Don’t attach the seat structure to the tree, and leave at least 75mm space to allow for the trunk to grow.
Most sites will yield a supply of bricks, blocks or stones which can be mortared into position to make bench supports for slatted or solid wood tops. The seating can either be set into the supports from the side, or bolted through from the top. A disadvantage of setting them in is that they are difficult to replace if vandalised.
Cast concrete bench tops can be made on site for mortaring to concrete, stone or brick supports. Make the formwork out of timber, lined with any suitable thick plastic such as building membrane or old fertiliser sacks. Mix up sufficient concrete of about 4 ballast:1 cement, and spread it evenly into the formwork. Set in some weldmesh or similar to add strength, and leave for at least three days before lifting onto the supports. The top can be as simple or as creative as you like. Concrete pigments can be used, or mouldings made along the edges or items set into the concrete, as long as they do not interfere with its function as a bench.
Large logs from fallen or felled trees make good benches. Preferably use ones that have to be moved from roadsides, gardens or other non-wooded sites. Fallen trees in woodland are a potential valuable dead-wood habitat for invertebrates and other organisms, and particularly if scarce in any particular woodland, should be left where they fall. Log seats can be embellished in various ways.
Rustic benches are suitable for locations where they are unlikely to be vandalised.
Small diameter roundwood timber can be used in various ways to make temporary seats. They are unlikely to last more than a season, and possibly only an afternoon, but are fun for children to build. Imaginative bowers, shelters and other structures can be made out of woven willow.
Rests
Rests or ‘perches’ should be about 750mm high, securely attached to stout uprights, set firmly into the ground. The top should be narrow and angled, for a person to rest against, but without actually sitting down.
