Project 3: sense of place

Musical Bench

Location: Town Hall

Rationale:
 

My furniture is a musical bench which could help and give opportunities to fellow street musicians at Sydney CBD to unleash their potential and fulfil their aims as musicians. Specifically, this bench is designed for Sydney Street Choir. Sydney Street Choir is a singing community formed to support those who are homeless or disadvantaged by providing these poor people a new hope: by training them with a therapeutic musical program which promotes social skills, independence and self-management. 

The main function of the Musical Bench is to help the members of Sydney Street Choir to promote themselves by rehearsing and performing on the streets. They can make use of the benches to share their stories and hardships that they have gone through to both affected and interested people in groups. Sydney Street Choir are having difficulties at the moment to gain more funds, members and volunteers as they only perform indoors most of the time at least twice a week and not many people are aware of their activities. My targeted site is at Town Hall, Sydney because the historic area is well known as a gathering place for people and tourist attraction. Also, there are quite a number of beggars and homeless people at the corner of the streets surrounding Town Hall and other areas in the city. These homeless people would have the chance to be inspired by Sydney Street Choir by watching them performing on the streets.  

Musical bench is designed in a way that it can be seated in two different ways. A person can choose to sit on the bench and can also lean against the bench as a back support is provided at the front. For example, musicians that play aboriginal music would find it useful as they need to sit on the floor to play with the Didgeridoo. The sides of the benches are angled and it can be arranged to form a circular arrangement which is useful for group discussions and presentations for better communication socially and psychologically. The benches can be installed and arranged in many different ways to suit the environment and the way how people would communicate. The colour of the Jarrah wood and the frame blends well with the Town hall building.

With these musical benches, Sydney Street Choir can finally connect, inspire and empower those who are living or working in homeless or disadvantaged communities through creating music, performance and passionate expression that truly opens people’s hearts.