Die Stütze
A solid piece of furniture with soft, elegant lines, that endures the elements and daily use.
1/6

Solution

The design is straightforward: easily understood and feasible. It has a satin texture finish and a small inclination towards the inside which gives a hugging feeling to the person sitting on it.

The bench is made of two mold injected parts, two aluminum rods that hold them fixed and four threaded end caps. The two parts are mold injected parts, with a thin wall 5-6 mm, hollow, the inside of the parts are filled with expandable foam. This eliminates the "knocking" sound that you get with hollow objects and keeps the weight down. The two rods are made of aluminum because they are cheaper and (depending) lighter than a stainless pipe. The rod has a 4.45cm (1.75") diameter. This may be an overkill, but allows the client to use the same parts for any different sized bench (e.g. even 6-7m for local football stadiums) and it is still cheaper than a much thinner stainless rod or pipe, but can be replaced with stainless or even plastic if required. I also provide a machinable format of all the individual parts that can be used directly or with slight modification(resizing) for mold making.

The end caps are machined and threaded aluminum rods of a larger diameter. These can be changed independently of the rods. Aluminum is easily machined and this lowers cost also.

The weight of the bench at 1.65m is around 65-75kg. This may seem too heavy to some, but it was made this way on purpose in case it will be left outside it will be stable and steady without anchoring the bench to the ground, but it still can be moved by two people.

What is the idea behind your Sparda-Bank-Bench?

A bench with modern materials but traditional lines. Taking inspiration from the SpardaBank brand and keeping in mind that it is a stable and secure company, we recreated that exact idea in form of a bench.

What makes your Sparda-Bench iconic?

The design’s easily recognizable side profile is eye-catching and can be used in ads, product flyers, online banners. The bench will be recognized standalone and also as THE Sparda-bench.

Give us an idea of how your bench is produced and at what costs.

On a 1.65m long bench is: Around 55 kg of ABS plastic: 3 EUR/kg = 165EUR Two aluminum rods and 4 end caps (6061 T6) 15 kg: rod 2 x 60EUR + cap 4 x 10EUR = 160EUR Expandable foam + 25EUR per bench. Total 350EUR This calculation is an educated guess on raw materials. The client still has 650EUR for the labor itself, including the two molds price, injecting the plastic, threading the rods, machining, threading the endcaps and assembly.

Is your bench transportable and all weather proof?

It is all weather proof.

The bench is foldable if one of the rods are removed, the geometry allows good stacking thus saving space for transport.

When leaving it outside, because of the larger weight the bench is stable enough to not tilt or move around if someone leans on it, jumps on it or bumps in it.

Did you use any stock or third party material? Please list all stock, fonts, and creative commons material!

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto+Slab https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto

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