Designing spaces (sticky spaces) for use, flexibility: park benches, picnic tables

See the Boston Globe article, "'Sticky' places are urban planning lifelines."  From the Guardian article "The power of the picnic bench":

A picnic table, meanwhile, can be the place for a meeting, a spot to host a party, or even just somewhere to eat your lunch with relative ease and comfort. More than this, they can involve a community in their space and give them a personal stake in it. If this sounds like fanciful, highfalutin stuff, then let me tell you about one picnic bench in particular. 

One day a picnic table appeared outside Pembroke House, a community space in Walworth, south London. It had been left over from a nearby party which had spilled onto the grass outside. Mike Wilson, Pembroke House’s manager, tells me that shortly after the table arrived, things began to happen: “Dog walkers who had passed each other every day without speaking started to sit down at the table for a chat. People waiting for events in Pembroke House to start would sit down to wait together.” After seeing what a difference it made, the bench’s original owner decided to leave it there for everyone to use.

The Pembroke House team now regularly hold their meetings at the picnic table, and rarely get through one without being interrupted by someone stopping to say hello and find out what’s going on. When being interviewed by consultants about their success in the community, Wilson showed them the picnic table, and immediately a neighbour interrupted to tell them what a difference Pembroke House and this table had made to him. The final testament to this extraordinary piece of outdoor furniture is from the local tenants, who were so impressed with the “bench effect” that they secured funding from the local council’s Cleaner Greener Safer project to install more street furniture around the local area. 

The humble picnic table may not be trendy, and may even look a little naff, but it’s cheap, and with today’s disappearing budgets that can only be a good thing. The discerning landscape architect, cautious of their aesthetic can install a designer alternative, but the cheap and cheerful traditional wooden version can’t be beaten. Try it as an easy addition to your local green space or community garden and see what a difference it makes.

A park bench is for reading a book, resting halfway up a hill, or contemplating the view.