Urban furniture made from ARPRO®

Flexible, lightweight yet durable ARPRO selected for stylish urban furniture at European summer festival

A stylish, temporary modular furniture system using ARPRO expanded polypropylene has been developed to provide durable and interchangeable urban seating. Asobi, a Slovenian multi-disciplinary design consultancy was tasked to develop an urban furniture system to be used in the main visitor areas during the Ljubljana Summer Festival.

“Urban planners closed one of Ljubljana’s main streets to traffic to allow festival goers, residents and pedestrians to sit, hear and feel the atmosphere,” explains Gorazd Malacic, General Manager of Asobi Product Design Consultants. “Some attractive, non-permanent and resilient urban furniture was therefore required and our experience with ARPRO led us to select JSP for this special project.”

In the space of only six weeks, JSP’s industrial designers and materials engineers helped Asobi design, test and provide low-cost tooling for the ARPRO based seating system. ARPRO is 100 percent recyclable and allows the design of products that are particularly light in weight, yet solid, secure and extremely functional in everyday use. Used in many ranges of contemporary, designer furniture, ARPRO enables furniture to be flexible and configurable, allowing modular and interchangeable components.

“The interchangeable nature of the furniture design is of great benefit in this urban application. For a quick response to changing demands, the seating can be easily reconfigured and moved to other areas of the festival when required,” explains Paul Compton, JSP’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (Europe). “Ideal for the urban environment, ARPRO is also non-toxic and can repel dirt, spills and graffiti.”

2008’s festival commemorates Slovenia’s Presidency of the EU, and features a number of cultural, business, folklore, tourist and sports events. "The festival’s artistic and cultural heritage required a suitably stylish furniture system resilient enough to withstand use from around 80,000 visitors, most of whom were new or unfamiliar to the surroundings and might welcome the opportunity to sit down," says Malacic.

“This project is further proof that ARPRO is ideal for both designers and engineers, enabling form and function to combine perfectly,” concludes Compton.

About ARPRO® and Seating

In addition to furniture, ARPRO® is used in numerous seating applications from safety child-seats and play chairs to the structural components of second-row seats in cars such as the Volvo XC60.

	Asobi, the design consultancy, was commissioned to design and make a temporary furniture system for the Ljubljana Summer Festival. It uses ARPRO® for its impact resistance, lightweight and durable properties.
	The festival required that the furniture system had to be aesthetically pleasing and resilient enough to withstand use from around 80,000 visitors.
	The modular system comprises multiple sections of ARPRO linked by stainless steel rods and same coloured ARPRO spacers.
	The modular system can seat both individuals and groups, and can take the form of a seat with backrest or simple bench.
	ARPRO is available in any colour you like!

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