LFA Pews & Perches 2

“Water Water Everywhere” is a public realm bench designed alongside Quincy Haynes for the second edition of the London Festival of Architecture’s annual Pews & Perches Competition. Our competition-winning entry was built in collaboration with Helen Caulfield of the Redundant Architects Recreation Association (R.A.R.A.) and supported by Sophie Percival and Priscilla Wong. The bench is located in Royal Victoria Gardens, Newham. The value of this project was £2,000.

With piles of rubbish such as plastic bottles and face masks still commonly thrown into the Thames, our design seeks to start a conversation about how we can inspire people to treat our waterways better and reuse these objects. Water Water Everywhere uses these found objects and suspends them in resin where they seem to be floating in water, and jesmonite, where they are almost riverbed fossils waiting to be uncovered. Frozen in time, the result is a bench simple in form but complex in materiality, providing a sculptural seat for people to gather and connect with the water’s edge.

Hear us talking about our bench design on the LFA Building Sounds Podcast, or watch our video on the LFA website.