Urban furniture design as a tool for social, environmental and economical sustainability

Project: Grisverd urban furniture range
Client: Grisverd
Location: Gandesa (Spain)
Year: 2013
Materials: Corten steel, recycled plastic
Keywords: Local production, recycled plastic, urban furniture, art direction. 

Regarding the information from IHOBE, the environmental impact of the Romantic bench -the best seller in Spain until the begining of this century- is induced mostly by the use of wood (44%) and the maintenance during its life span (27%)

WHY? Grisverd is a catalan SME's that produces urban furniture. They believe that companies can provoque a positive impact in the society, the environment and of course the economy, and that's why they bet for quality, design and sustainaibility as an innovation engine. We became a perfect complement for them and they bet for us in the implementation of ideas that were radically new in the sector and demonstrate that innovation doesn't depend on your size.

What? Our collaboration with them started as a long term plan, including market research, product design of a complete family of urban furniture, material research, art direction, product positioning, communication assistence, innovation management, and assessment in new business strategies. The result is a full urban furniture range composed of benches, bins, bollards, etc. to furnish the public space in a practical way, that it's competing in quality, usability and price with products of much bigger companies.

HOW? We took account of the knowledge and the technical skills of Grisverd in the whole design process, preserving their brand values and contributing to reinforce them, and we designed made to measure to their production methodologies and machinery.

At the end this project fitted perfectly to their goal of triple benefit -economic, environmental and social- because it help to the development of the promotion of local economies, assured the economical liability of the ecoinnovation processes along the time, and finished with an innovative urban furniture range adapted to the willings of the market. We proposed new materials in the sector, like recycled plastic and corten steel, that made the maintenance lower than the products of other brands.

As a comparison, the environmental impact of one of our Nuu benches became 44% lower than the ones made of anodized aluminium and FSC wood that the administration was buying in 2010.