The Swell is a bench made of metal sections obtained from laser cut steel sheets, each one hinged with a ball bearing to a perpendicular tube which allows their rotation.
The idea was to give presence to the visitors who form a flow in the environment of the gallery during their tour, recalling the water through the swell in a kind of stream, accompanying the visitor through the exhibition, and it makes a metallic clinking like water drops when the guest sits on it.
For designing The Swell I started my considerations from the users and the environment they are sharing: I wondered what a bench in a gallery is for, finding interesting the need of reflecting about what the guest is seeing and the need of impressing it in the memory. I visualized this process translating it into a shape which could impress on itself the moment so,I thought of something interactable. Then I focused my attention on the senses involved in this interaction and I've found interesting the idea of breaking the silence of a gallery with the sharp beat of the metal like a water drop can do, so I've figured out the ways metal could do it. Finally, I gave an aesthetic to my concepts sourcing from the natural elements which could have been related to the Waterfall Maison&Gallery, finding the ‘water’ as the link between my ideas.
The result is an organic shape which recalls a wave made of a linear series of movable metal sheets. The elements are put side by side to each other with a spacer in between; each one can rotate independently around a horizontal axis thanks to a ball bearing; another horizontal tube is positioned parallel and cross the sheets through a hole that they have, which shape allows the sheet to beat on the tube every time it moves, producing a clank. These tubes have the heads fixed to the external sides of the bench, composing the weight-bearing structure.
The Swell is an interactive sculptural furniture piece, user centric, that dialog with the surround involving all senses.