Associative Urban Furniture (A.U.F.) is designed for the city of San Jose. Costa Rica's capital so far has been struggling with the definition and acceptance of its public domain; public installations or urban furniture do hardly exist due to fear of theft or vandalism. We designed a durable theft- and weather resistant toolbox that is aiming at a closure of this gap; we believe that urban furniture is an important element for the enjoyment and appropriation of urban public space.
The terminology of "associative design" is derived from the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The school developed a research program that produces disciplinary knowledge in the field of architecture by new computational techniques and manufacturing processes. The aim of the research is to produce variations of urban furniture generated by different site conditions in specific locations in the city. Each object is developed as an associative geometric prototype. The driving parameters of the geometrical model respond to the site specifities and local constraints.
Credit
Oliver Schütte with Ronald Fonseca and Christian Castro.
San Jose, Costa Rica, 2008.