Evaluation committee conclusions for competition FUTURE BENCH

• The evaluation committee welcomed with particular satisfaction the considerable participation of young artists in the competition (443)

• In recent years it became increasingly a recognizable phenomenon, the decline and impoverishment of public space. Partly because priority was given to infrastructure and the expansion of private space.

In the future, however, quality, comprehensive upgrade of outdoor public places become necessary because it conveys the collective life reflected in urban culture, confined areas and incorporated elements of the natural environment. Improving urban facilities throughout cities can aid in these upgrades.

• The scale of the issue of the competition given to "small commitments" allowed contestants to submit multiple ideas and views on the future of public seating. After the first reading, certain "clusters" were determined which were based on one or more, key concepts, or combinations thereof. They are the following:

  • Focus on the relationship of artificial - natural
  • Focus on engineering materials
  • Focus on the relationship of individual - collective
  • Focus on multi-functionality
  • Focus on facility
  • Focus on contemporary artistic practices
  • Focus on resilience
  • Focus on standardization
  • Focus on social comment
  • Focus on past
  • Focus on consumable
  • Focus on recycling

The evaluation committee accepted all the proposals and selected, after careful analysis and debate, the most complete (57) proposals, all based on different priorities and perspectives for the future.

We want to point out that many contestants tackled a public bench as a product of an interior secure space and not as a product of public equipment for 'heavy' collective use.

Then the 57 proposals were analyzed in greater depth and detail whereby the Committee reached unanimity on four subheadings.

First Prize awarded to Vardoulaki Pavlina, Vasilaki Penelope, Verteouri Anastasia, Galaktiou Katerina, Dragana Marcetic., Yfanti Elena, Chazapi Anna from Greece and from Bosnia-Herzegovina for the proposal astiko chromosoma 1. The Committee appreciated that the proposal manages a broad inventiveness multi-functional environment surrounding the natural element, and reinforces the use of public space by citizens. The proposal has plastic qualities, incorporating a number of disparate activities of public space, which could be defined by creating a system for public equipment.

The Second Prize is awarded to Antonela Nikolopoulou from the Netherlands for her proposal of futurecyclebench. The Committee appreciated that the future could not exist without consideration and reorganization of the past. Particular interest was the positive dimension of creative recycling, the discussion of public-private relationships and the criticism of mass production products.

The committee decided to give two equal third prizes.

Third Prize is awarded to Evangelia Repouskou from Greece for her proposal of draw-extrude. The Committee appreciated the morphological simplicity and minimalism of the proposal in conjunction with the direction of the future and its relationship to a constantly evolving technological material. The public seat, in the proposal incorporates the possibility of flexible standards, and through modulation of densification can cover a wide range of needs.

Third Prize is awarded to Katerina Kanellopoulou from Greece for her proposal 002. The Committee appreciated the originality of the proposal which offered a number of degraded, vacant and derelict sites in the city that could benefit from a kind gesture, to upgrade. Particularly important was the diversity of the seat height and the relative level of observation.