For my field action I engaged with O Café (482 Avenue of the Americas, NY). What took me to them was that the bench they put outside during the day had recently been stolen and they needed to replace it. I got in contact with Fernando, the owner, and proposed to redesign the bench and fabricate it for O Café. I thought this would be a good opportunity to apply the knowledge I had learned in the class to a real case scenario. This field action and the designing of the bench included two commitments:
-Create change at the source, not the symptom: The bench is made entirely out of recycled materials and hence takes what would be disposed and would create pollution into a valuable object.
-It all begins with a change of thinking: that change of thinking being from “The old will never look modern” to “lets redefine the idea of modern and cool!”
We met one afternoon to talk about the characteristics of the identity of O Café and the characteristics that the bench would need to have in order to fit in with this identity. We also discussed the legal implications of putting a bench outside a café in New York—the bench could be no wider than one foot, in order to comply with the law.
After that, Fernando and I kept in contact through email as the design process took place. I sent him several design proposals that we discussed.
Once I had found the materials to build the bench and had actually built it, I met Fernando again for a preliminary review before giving him the final product. It was very helpful: he made some comments regarding how the design could be fine-tuned to fit the aesthetic of O Café even better, and also commented on some final refinements to comply with the law.
This Field action will have positive effects for O Cafe in that it will bring back the iconic bench that is such an attractive in the sunny days that are arriving.
find the PDF here!
