Urban Tide — Modular Urban Furniture

Overview

Urban Tide puts four things that usually stand next to each other as separate objects — a bench, a bicycle stand, a place to leave an e-scooter and a waste bin — into one continuous line. It reads as a single flowing form, but it is assembled from separate bent tube modules that can be combined differently for each site.

The wave does the work. Where it stands upright and narrow it holds a bicycle’s front wheel; where it rises to handlebar height an e-scooter can lean against it; where it runs low a wooden seat sits in the loop. One geometry, four uses — which is what keeps the piece from looking like street furniture that has been bolted together.

Form and modules

The final shape came out of a product family: I drew the same bent-tube language as a bench, a stand and a bin, then pulled the variants back together into one object. The modules are slip-fit parts with hidden internal connectors, so a square, a campus or a mobility hub can each get a different length and sequence without a new design.

Production

Stainless steel AISI 316, 30 mm outer diameter, CNC tube bending with a minimum radius of three times the diameter. Straight sections and curved elements have matching insert ends, are welded MIG/TIG where the joint is permanent, then galvanised and powder coated. The seats are hardwood.

Does it hold?

A piece of street furniture has to carry people who sit down hard, so I ran the numbers rather than assuming. Hand calculation of the bending moment for one person per seat, then a static analysis in CAD: maximum von Mises stress below 100 MPa, maximum displacement under 10 mm, minimum safety factor above three.