The Boston waterfront context for Design Museum Boston’s Street Seats Design Challenge led us to begin this exploration with the rich history of maritime knotting. Rather than recreate any literal knot in Pop Art scale, Knot bench uses over three miles of nautical line in different ways to create a springy, resilient surface that is as resistant as it is surprisingly pleasant to touch. The rock-like form of Knot bench is similarly derived from a number of referents –- from the Victorian round settee to the bioluminescent coral-encrusted  underwater artifact —that furthers Pillow Culture’s investigation of an upholstered landform.

Along with sixteen other benches, located around Boston’s Fort Point  Channel, KNOT bench is on public view and can be experienced until October 2013. The Design Museum Boston hosts a bi-monthly guided tour every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month. http://designmuseumboston.org/exhibits/streetseats/

KNOT bench Team: Natalie Fizer, Emily Stevenson, Joseph Chun Jr., Sutton Murray

special thanks to:                                               

Lauren Kogod – Baggywrinkler extraordinaire

Nancy Kim and Lindy Thorsen – our loopers

photographer:  Eric Payson

sponsors:                                                           

C.E. Beckman Co.,  marine wholesale & service station

Crest Foam Ltd,  outdoor reticulated foam

Fablok Mills Inc.,  knitting, dyeing & finishing

R & W Rope,  marine cordage

pillow friends:  Rodridgo Diaz, Glenn Forley, Michael Morris, Suzan Strum

designmuseumboston.org/streetseats/

 Knot: A twisting, turning, tying, knitting, or entangling of ropes or parts of a rope so as to join two ropes together or make a finished end on a rope…

 The KNOT bench takes its cues from the rich maritime and nautical history of Fort Point Channel which ocean-going sailing vessels once populated. Essential to every sailor and seaman was the knowledge of rope knotting and tying. Used in rigging, docking, mooring, anchoring, and netting, nautical tying had a functional as well as a decorative role. Sailors would use their knot tying skills to produce “knot art” when they had time off during the “dog watch.”  This form of knot art resulted in maritime objects of extraordinary beauty such as boat fenders made of woven rope that cushioned a blow from another vessel, or early nineteenth-century ceramic jugs whose knotted covers acted as a protective cushion.  These artifacts along with various knots such as the cow hitch, lark’s head, and reef knot, served as inspiration for KNOT bench.

The KNOT bench features an innovative mix of materials and construction techniques. Evoking a Victorian circular settee, KNOT bench is specifically designed to engage users of different ages with its varied seat heights. This omni-directional bench will be installed in a park setting along Boston’s historic Fort Point Chanel linking the waterfronts of downtown and South Boston- a seam between the Financial District and the emerging Boston Innovation District.

BIRTH of the Bench

In the studio with PILLOW Culture collaborators JJ Chun and Sutton Murray producing the beginnings of a working prototype for KNOT bench.

In Memoriam 

Yoshiko’s AirFlow-er were part of Columbia University’s GSAPP PERMANENT CHANGE: PLASTICS IN ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING 2011Conference.With assistance from Shuning Zhao and John Hooper.

THE FOURTH COLUMBIA CONFERENCE ON ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS MARCH 30 — APRIL 1, 2011

http://www.arch.columbia.edu/flagship-projects/materials-project/conferences/permanent-change

http://www.alycesantoro.com/

http://gassergrunert.net/test/

Pillow Walk , first seen in Pillow Culture’s exhibition Pillow Pageant is featured in Daria Dorosh’s latest solo show at A.I.R Gallery, Brooklyn, NY     www.airgallery.org/images/Dorosh_PR_FINAL.pdf

Click here to view the embedded video.

New Jersey Film Festival www.njfilmfest.com/

Offering visitors a slightly softer rock upon which to sit while viewing DUMBO’s magnificent waterfront, Twenty-Four Stones I’d Like to Know presents nine giant upholstered boulders in Brooklyn Bridge Park. On view as part of the 2011DUMBO Arts Festival, this project is the brainchild of artist Elizabeth Demaray and Pillow Culture. Each stone sports it’s own uniquely fitted cozy-style covering in plush striped fabric and EZ Dri® outdoor reticulated foam. Twenty-Four Stones asks the age old question: can you ever make a stone any softer?

Through this unlikely marriage of materials, Twenty-Four Stones considers the relationship between monumentality and comfort via a familiar object – the pillow. In this unique project, Emily Stevenson and Natalie Fizer of Pillow Culture will be using each rock pattern as a template to re-construct the underlying boulders in order to generate a geometrized version of each stone. Acting as prototypes, each stone will be re-created as part of a limited edition in their Mega Pillow series.

Pillow Culture, co-founded by architects Emily Stevenson and Natalie Fizer, is dedicated to promoting the pillow. Using current material technologies, Pillow Culture designs and produces, as well as collaborates with artists to create innovative limited edition pillows that relate to human comfort, beauty, and well-being.

New York artist Elizabeth Demaray knits sweaters for plants, fabricates alternative housing for hermit crabs and famously familiarized a 10-ton Nike-Hercules Missile by upholstering it in 400 sq. ft. of satin.

Thank you to our sponsor Crest Foam for their generous contribution of EZ Dri® outdoor foam.

2011 DUMBO Arts Festival, Brooklyn Bridge Park – Main Street  Friday September 23  6-9pm, Saturday September 24  12-8pm, Sunday September 25  12-8pm