Community benches encourage public engagement by providing a place to sit, relax and engage in various related activities. They play a central role in bringing people together and initiating the dynamics of interaction and dialogue. The Campus Garden Urban Furniture competition is a design competition to develop innovative and interactive prototypes for sustainable urban furniture that can be placed in the Campus Garden in the heart of the RWTH Aachen Campus.

This competition is a wonderful opportunity to put into practice what you have learnt during your studies.

The product must go beyond a pure seating module and offer a variety of possibilities for interaction with the user. It should symbolise a significant element on campus that promotes increasing social engagement while supporting sustainability and environmentally friendly design. Despite specific spatial constraints, the proposed intervention can take the form of a single bench and table for a few users, a collection of individual seats or a larger module for several people (see competition manual).

The furniture should be both entertaining and interactive. It should also support additional activities such as gardening, relaxing, resting and eating.