Regular Deadline: January 12th, 2025

 

Kallpa bench

  • Prize
    Winner in Bench
  • Company/Firm
    Cord Research Creation Team | Design Department | Universidad de Nariño
  • Designer
    Prof. Danilo Calvache
  • Lead Designer(Other)
    Nathalia Cortes (student intern)
  • Other Credit
    Students: María Alejandra Delgado, María Alejandra Tovar, César Cadena, Juan Sebastián Duarte.
  • Location
    Pasto, Nariño, Colombia
  • Client
    Soluciones Integrales de Nariño
  • Project Link
  • Web URL

This bench takes advantage of the resistance of Wood Plastic Composite (WPC) posts usually used for architectural structures construction. Its rough appearance, size, composition, and weight favor anti-vandalism conditions; his name Kallpa means "strength" in Quechua, the predominant language of southern Colombia, whose ancestral peoples were characterized as a warrior race. Its internal modular metal structures allow the seven WPC posts that make it up to be joined, achieving a large solid element that is easy to assemble and install.

This product proposes a new application for a material used in elaborating architectural structures, WPC posts, giving it extended functional characteristics as a furniture object (bench). It can be resized to half-length for smaller spaces and distributed in space by different combinations. Its length and size allow it to be used by 5-6 people. The appearance and characteristics of its main material, WPC, give it an aesthetic that makes it very different from other options on the market, and that guarantees its resistance to sun and rain, as well as vandalism.