The Nurture Form Community Bench

Extraordinary jazz genius, Theloneus Monk, is credited with describing the space between notes as the “Blue Note”. It is this interval of silence that provides the flexibility of movement in jazz. It is also this interval that provides the “give” to the Community Bench. The Community Bench, designed by Paulo Gregory in partnership with Gutierrez Studios, relies on its unique bent steel fabrication to provide comfort and styling that literally defy gravity. Other benches rely on overbuilding and overuse of materials to provide strength. This makes them unforgiving and uncomfortable, in addition to wasteful. The Nurture Form Community Bench uses hand-bent, hot-rolled steel to achieve its incredible strength. We also use ingenious design that takes advantage of both the strength and flexibility of this material. Our blue note is the space between its seat and back. Allowing this space to breath brings just the right amount movement and give to absorb the shock as you sit down, lean back and relax. This unique design flexes, without you giving up a bit of that secure feeling a great bench should provide. The only way to really understand this is to sit down on one.

The Bench That Gives

In addition to giving physically, the Nurture Form Community Bench was developed to support individual and community transformation. Individuals from economically distressed communities have been trained through the BenchMark Artisan Training Project to learn the wood and metal fabrication skills and techniques necessary to produce this bench. In this way the purchase of this bench gives by creating economic development in communities.