A two-seat timber bench built from pale pine slats, with slatted seats and backrests on a simple box frame, standing in sunlight on the concrete floor of the MMCITÉ factory

Workshop

MMCITÉ Workshop

A Bench from Twenty Slats

Year: November 2023
Classification: Workshop
Status: Workshop, Art 5 course, ARCHIP
Location: Brno, Czech Republic
Designer: Gökalp Kalfa
Team: Gökalp Kalfa
Zehra Çelik (opens in a new tab)
Maria Paula Frias
Maria Hubich
Tamara Gragovska
Consultants: ConsultantDavid Karásek (opens in a new tab)Jerry Koza (opens in a new tab)
Organizer: MMCITÉ (opens in a new tab)

The workshop, held at the MMCITÉ factory as part of the Art 5 course, was a two-stage process that called for both creative design and manual skill. On the first day, the task was to design a seating unit for two or three people and to build a 1:10 model of it within one hour, using a limited number of wooden slats and glue.

My design was selected from within the group to be built in the second stage of the workshop. On the second day, my team and I had to bring it to life with limited materials: twenty pieces of timber measuring 200 × 5 × 3 cm, nails, a saw and a hammer. Working together within the five hours we were given, we turned the design into a full-size bench.

Five small 1:10 models of seating made from thin wooden slats on a round black table, each labelled Team A to Team E on torn paper. — 01The 1:10 models of teams A to E from the first day.

A tutor holding up Gökalp Kalfa's slat model of a two-seat bench beside a sketch, while Gökalp looks on. — 02Reviewing the selected model before the build.

Building the Bench

01 / 08

Team members in orange safety vests and gloves measuring and nailing timber at a workbench in the factory workshop. — 01Measuring and nailing the first pieces.

Gökalp Kalfa hammering a clamped timber frame while a teammate holds it steady and another photographs. — 02Clamping and nailing the frame.

The half-built bench frame with one slatted seat in place, standing by the workshop saw and benches. — 03The frame with the first seat in place.

The team in orange safety vests standing behind the finished bench as it is presented in the factory hall. — 04The team presenting the finished bench.

The finished two-seat bench in sunlight, seen from a three-quarter angle with its two backrests at different heights. — 05The finished bench.

Front view of the finished bench, its slatted seats and backrests on a box frame, with slat shadows on the floor. — 06Front view.

Side view of the bench showing the tilted seat and backrest within the outer frame, with visitors behind. — 07Side view, with the tilted seat and backrest.

08Profile from the other side.