Hannah Pisano

Co-design research showed a desire for student spectatorship and separation from activity areas which resulted in the intention to define a boundary condition and offer proximity to activity without direct engagement.
The Bunji (commonly indigenous word for friend/mate) Bench or friendship chair as a device reinforces important social values in childhood development and is characterized by friendship, caring, respect, responsibility, valuing difference and including others.
The Bunji Bench is intended to program and reinvigorate what is currently the underutilized facade of a toilet block directly adjacent to the basketball court.

The Bunji Bench reinvigorates through converging accessible ramps that lead toward the platform and friendship seat placing emphasis on the seat as spatial focal point.
The bench is a place to hang out, read or draw, spectate, engage with, walk through, rest, look at, fall off and make friends. The chair is protected from the basketball court with a vertical wall of battens which mimics the cladding geometry applied to the Facade whilst maintaining transparency for supervision. This transparency also allows for students to act as spectator whilst maintaining potential for peer engagement through the structure’s circulation and seating positions.

Using locally sourced Balckbutt timber for both structural components and cladding allows for a cohesive aesthetic, ease of prefabrication, transport, and speed of assembly. Due to the structural components being cut and prefabricated offsite they only need be arranged and clad in-situ. This allows for more meaningful student engagement with structure and ultimately the assembly due to reduced member sizing and safe fixing methods.

The bench is positioned at the corner of the toilet block within a central courtyard. The space is currently underutilized with no location for students to act as observer or simply sit within proximity to activity. The site was chosen due to the need for invigoration of the toilet block visually and its proximity to the four square and basketball courts programmatically. The location of intervention is highly visible on site which helps to define the overall exterior space also used as an outdoor assembly area. Adding the function of the chair helps reiterate the importance of key social values spatially. To value difference, take responsibility, care for, be friendly and include others.