Amicable Split Bench

As we are critiquing each other’s designs we will sometimes say “hit it with the simple stick”. It’s gotten to a point where we now have a wooden dowel with the word “simple” written in Sharpie™ kicking around the design studio. The Amicable Split bench started even more simply, a solid hardwood bench shaped like an upside down “U”. Out of a concern that the seat might split with temperature changes, we “pre-split” it by creating two planks and a gap in the seat. To add comfort we created a subtle V-shape to the seat by canting each U-shaped plank. Doing this had the unintended, but welcomed benefit of also animating the silhouette. But you can’t forget the details. The sweet little brass bracket that connects these two pieces makes this as nice to look at upside down as right side up.