A modular outdoor seating system concept which encourages social interaction by mirroring conversational spacial metrics in its form and encouraged placement.
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Loneliness is a growing issue in the United States.
Americans are feeling lonelier than ever. 61% are considered lonely,1 (scoring higher than 43 on the UCLA Loneliness Scale), up 7% from 2 years ago, and nearly double than a few decades ago.2
The graphic below compares the average loneliness scores of each age group reported in 2018 vs. 2019. The slope of the line between years indicate the increase in average loneliness scores for that group.
The adverse effects of widespread loneliness are worth our attention:
An estimated 6.7 billion dollars of annual federal spending is attributable to social isolation among older adults. It also significantly raises health risks like chances of heart disease and stroke in seniors.
“It’s critical that [people] have spaces where they can connect face-to-face to form meaningful relationships.”
— Douglas Nemecek,
Chief Medical Officer for Behavioral Health at Cigna
Sociable spaces offer a solution.
Sociable public spaces help alleviate our loneliness problem by providing opportunities for meaningful interaction.
By looking at the social behaviors of people in a successful sociable space, we can find the constraints which lead to an informed design.
This drawing is an analysis of how people utilize the space in Washington Square Park, a successful sociable space in New York City. This drawing revealed a few things which helped inform the final design:
Despite crowd density, the sizes of social groups remained fairly consistent.
The most spread-out groups tend to be about ten feet wide, independent of how many people exist within the group. Tighter groups tend to grow in a linear fashion dependent on the number of group members. Given that most social groups are about 7 to 10 feet wide, the final design needs to fall within that diameter range.
Social geometries are consistent and predictable.
In examining the arrangements of movable chairs in a number of public spaces, we see that people near each other often arrange themselves at angles between 30º - 50º. This angle is comfortable for conversation.
Social Metrics
Nose to nose distance/ 18 - 30”
Parallel seat to seat edge distance/ 20”
Facing seat to seat edge distance/ 24 - 26”
Ideal bench length/ 96”
Social angles/ 45º - 90º
Max group size/ 12’
Anthropometrics
Single seat width/ 20”
Seat depth/ 16 - 20”
Seat height/ 17 - 24”
Walkway width/ 24”
(24” serves as armrests, side tables, and tall seating.)
Using the established design constraints drawn from the above analyses, I was able to design a grid system which showed where seating modules could be placed in relation to each other. From this system I was able to pull the profiles of modules that could be arranged in a number of ways to create sociable environments.
The final design includes seven pieces, each serving a purpose in supporting a sociable public space.
Each module follows a similar construction, using welded sheet metal for the seat, supported by a bent pipe frame. Rounded wood slats soften and warm the cold steel seat. The leg pipes are cut in half to hint at how modules are to be connected. A bright color could also be painted on connection sides to further indicate this, and to add to the playfulness of the objects.
Korero anchors publics space with adaptable seating that is designed to hold space for people to gather, converse, branch out, and feel a part of their community.
