IIDA Perspective - Summer 2019 - 49

privacy and security-must also play into the equation.
In public spaces, the personal bubble tends to be about
12 inches (30 centimeters) between strangers. In spaces
with rows of seating-like airports, bus stations, and
waiting rooms-people will actively avoid sitting next to
someone if it means they will invade that personal space,
says Agati. "So why are we cramming so many seats into a
space when they just won't get used?"
When Agati Furniture was brought in to work with
VOA (now Stantec) to advise on the layout and furniture
selection for the common area of Chicago-based North
Park University's Johnson Center, the primary seating in
the space was a sea of ottomans.
"It wasn't getting used," Agati says. "The ottomans were
just spread out through a high-traffic area, and students
seeking a place to work weren't protected from the
commotion of their surroundings."

To make the seating more user-friendly, Agati
and his team redesigned the space with seating that
offered refuge. They replaced the ottomans with
banquet seating that provided cover on the back and
sides of users, producing a sense of security and
separation from strangers. "We call it the haven effect,"
Agati says.
According to Agati, a similar effect can be achieved
with high tables and chairs. "A high table offers prospect,
so users are eye level with others moving through the
space," he says. "As people sit higher in a space, the
smaller the personal bubble becomes. This will allow you
to have a tighter footprint."
Ultimately, the key to successful seating patterns and
furniture selection comes down to understanding
human behavior, Agati says. "It all plays into how people
feel in the space." n

PUT THE SEATS AWAY
Not all seating transformations are
about introducing new furniture
options and reconfiguring footprints.
Some spaces are clearing out chairs
altogether.
When New York's Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (MTA)
reopened the first of three rehabbed
stations in late 2017, several new
features took center stage, including
USB charging stations, large-screen
digital maps, and new mosaics. But for
many users, the biggest change was
what was left out: seats. Instead of the
typical benches found in many transit
hubs, the new station has leaning rails.
In an email to CityLab, former MTA
spokesman Kevin Ortiz called the
leaning bar "the result of a review of
best practices in transit systems around
the world." Bars take up less floor space
than benches, he wrote, and serve as
another option for transit riders.
"Leaning rails can be a positive
addition to standard seating, since they
provide yet another seating option
and help to address a range of needs
and abilities in public spaces," says
Bryan Ross, a senior associate at the
Center for Active Design in New York,
a nonprofit organization that aims to
transform design and development
practices in support of healthier, more
engaged communities.

The multibillion-dollar Salesforce
Transit Center in San Francisco-which
opened last August but quickly closed
for major repairs-adopted a similar
no-seats approach to its Grand Hall, the
station's main point of entry.
"Most of the pedestrian movement
studies we did showed people would
tend to move through the hall pretty
quickly, similar probably to Grand
Central [Station] in New York," Randolph
Volenec, AIA, an associate principal with
Pelli Clarke Pelli architects in New Haven,
Connecticut, told the San Francisco
Examiner. Seats then, "could be in the
way of people moving through to the
space up to the bus deck level," Volenec,

whose company designed the
space, added.
However, the true purpose
behind these-and other-seatless
common spaces is under scrutiny,
with many saying these are
examples of hostile architecture,
not next-gen design.
Hostile architecture, also
sometimes called defensive
design, is a controversial type
of urban design aimed at
preventing people from using
public spaces in undesirable
ways. Examples include leaning
benches, segmented benches,
boulders under bridges, and
retractable spikes set up in front
of retailers and other buildings. Each
of these features is often used around
the world to prevent crime and keep
homeless people from loitering or
sleeping in these areas.
"The elements that make spaces
hostile for targeted populations also
make them hostile for the general
public," Cara Chellew, a researcher
for the Global Suburbanisms Project
at Toronto's York University, told
Architectural Digest. "Vulnerable groups
of people suffer disproportionately
when there is a lack of benches, public
washrooms, and shelter from the
elements."

summer 2019

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