A Furniture That Approximates Cyclists and Pedestrians: Reclaiming Urban Leftovers

Every city has them: thin slivers of pavement between a parking lot and a sidewalk, dead corners left behind by road widening, strips of no-man's-land that belong to everyone and no one. These interstitial spaces are usually designed for cars, if they were designed at all, and they fracture the continuity of public life. What if a single piece of furniture could stitch them back together, giving cyclists a reason to stop and pedestrians a reason to stay?

That is the premise behind A Furniture That Approximates Cyclists and Pedestrians, a project by Hannah Kny that targets the leftover voids of Brazilian cities, particularly São Paulo, Curitiba, and Porto Alegre. The design proposes a modular urban furniture system that combines bicycle parking, seating, and integrated planters into a single volumetric unit. Dimensioned to fit standard parking-lot footprints, it slots into the very spaces car-centric planning created, converting liabilities into social infrastructure.

Activating the Leftover: Street-Level Proof of Concept

A pedestrianized street with mature canopy trees, colourful murals, and simple red benches already demonstrates the potential of reclaiming road space for people. The image captures what happens when cars are removed: the ground plane opens up, shade becomes generous, and the street wall turns into a gallery. Kny's project takes this logic further by asking what happens to the fragments that pedestrianization leaves behind, the awkward in-between zones where a full plaza is too ambitious but a blank stretch of asphalt is a missed opportunity.

Aluminium, Wood-Plastic, and a Clear Assembly Logic

The technical drawing reveals the two-material strategy at the heart of the system. An aluminium structural frame provides corrosion resistance, durability, and full recyclability. Onto that skeleton, wood-plastic composite panels clip in to form the seating and planting surfaces. These composites are lightweight, weather-resistant, and produced from recycled materials, which keeps both the ecological footprint and the municipal budget in check. The assembly sequence shown in the drawing suggests that units can be fabricated off-site and installed with minimal on-street disruption.

The rendered plaza view brings that material palette into context. Set between historic facades with green surfacing underfoot, the furniture reads as a natural extension of the pedestrian realm rather than an afterthought. Planters rise from the seating surface, blurring the line between rest point and micro-garden. The colour and texture of the wood-plastic panels warm up the composition, contrasting with the cooler tones of surrounding stone and plaster.

Modular Geometry: From Parking Bay to Public Living Room

The elevation and plan drawings expose the module's core geometry: a lobed, curved seating surface in yellow that wraps around a central planting zone and offers dedicated slots for bicycle parking. By calibrating the unit's footprint to the dimensions of a standard parking space, Kny guarantees that the furniture can replace car storage on a one-to-one basis. It is a pointed spatial argument: the same area that once held a single idle vehicle now holds two bikes, seating for several people, and a patch of urban greenery.

The isometric rendering makes the spatial payoff legible at a glance. A bicycle leans into its dedicated slot while the curved bench invites pedestrians to sit facing one another, a small but deliberate move that encourages conversation rather than passive waiting. The integrated planter adds shade and ecological value without requiring a separate maintenance regime. Every component, seating, parking board, planting tray, is interchangeable, so municipalities can reconfigure units as neighbourhood needs shift.

Two Modes, One Module: Planter and Parking Configurations

The final diagram presents two configuration options side by side. In the first, the planter tray is inserted to maximize greenery and create a softer edge along a sidewalk. In the second, the planter slot is swapped for an additional bicycle parking arrangement, boosting capacity for locations near transit stops or commercial strips. This adaptability is critical for a country like Brazil, where urban budgets are tight and conditions vary dramatically between a dense São Paulo avenue and a quieter Porto Alegre neighbourhood street. The modular logic means a city does not need to commission bespoke designs for every context; it purchases a system and tunes it locally.

The Healthy Loop: Security, Economy, and Street Life

Kny frames the project around what she calls a "healthy loop." Secure bike parking draws cyclists into public space. Their presence increases foot traffic and natural surveillance, which makes the space safer. Safer spaces attract more pedestrians, who pause, interact, and spend money at local businesses. Revenue gives vendors and municipalities an incentive to maintain the furniture, closing the loop. It is a systems-level argument embedded in an object-scale intervention, and it acknowledges a reality that Brazilian designers know well: public infrastructure survives only when communities see direct value in keeping it alive.

Why This Project Matters

Urban furniture is often treated as decoration, something a city adds after the real planning is done. Kny's project flips that hierarchy. By sizing the module to a parking bay and targeting interstitial voids, the furniture becomes a planning instrument that physically replaces car infrastructure with human infrastructure. It does not require rezoning, demolition, or large capital budgets. It requires a parking space, an aluminium frame, and a political decision to prioritize people.

The design also resists the tendency toward one-dimensional solutions. A bench that is only a bench competes with every other street expense for attention and funding. A module that parks bikes, grows plants, generates foot traffic, and supports local commerce builds its own constituency. For Brazilian cities grappling with inequality, vandalism, and constrained public investment, that multi-layered return on a single object may be the most compelling argument of all.

View the Full Project

About the Designers

Designer: Hannah Kny

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Project credits: A furniture that aproximates cyclists and pedestrians" by Hannah Kny.