Why sit when you can play

"Why sit when you can play" is a musical public park bench focused on sparking community activity and social interaction through play. We wanted to take an often once boring or underutilized product and turn into a stimulating creative outlet to spark creativity, exploration, and free-choice learning into a space. The bench is made with a custom powder coated steel form that encourages a multitude of different seating interactions. The bench also contains two musical sections each containing two octaves of aluminum notes that can be played with attached mallets.

Ryan Swanson is the founder and executive director of The Urban Conga, a multidisciplinary design firm focused on promoting community activity and social interaction through play. They achieve this through creating interactive installations and environments that spark creativity, exploration, and free-choice learning in both the public and private realm.