Seats & Benches
BSFG supplies seats and benches for public sector, education, residential, commercial and transport projects across the UK.
The range covers practical outdoor seating through to design-led and coordinated street furniture, giving architects and contractors options for different landscapes, budgets and performance requirements.
Good public seating does more than provide somewhere to sit. It influences how people move through, use and spend time within an outdoor space. For project teams and specifiers, it also needs to meet practical requirements around durability, accessibility, installation, maintenance and integration with the wider external works package.
BSFG supports projects from early design and specification through to manufacture, delivery and installation, helping project teams select seating that works visually, technically and commercially.
CHOOSING SEATS AND BENCHES FOR AN EXTERNAL WORKS PROJECT
The right seating depends on the location, expected use and wider design intent. For example, a bench for a town centre regeneration scheme will have different requirements from seating within a school, residential courtyard or commercial development.
Seating should be considered as part of the wider external works strategy, taking into account how people will move through the space, where they may pause and how the furniture will work alongside planting, paving, cycle parking and other street furniture.
By understanding the purpose of each area at an early stage, architects and contractors can select seating that supports the way the space is intended to function.
CONSIDER HOW THE SPACE WILL BE USED
Start with the role the seating needs to perform. So public realm schemes may require individual seats, traditional benches, modular arrangements or seating that helps define pedestrian routes and social areas. Projects where people are likely to stay longer may benefit from backrests, armrests or adjacent tables.
Products such as Arrowhead Seating and Calero Seating provide further options when seating forms a deliberate part of the landscape or architectural design.
Location matters too. Seating should provide useful stopping points without restricting pedestrian movement, maintenance access, entrances, cycle routes or other functions within the external environment.
Alice Rolfe, Sales Support at BSFG, comments,
"Quite often a customer starts with a particular bench in mind, but once we understand the site and how the space will actually be used, there may be another option that works better. Looking at the location, users and wider scheme first makes it much easier to recommend the right seating.”
DESIGN FOR ACCESSIBLE AND INCLUSIVE SPACES
Inclusive design should be considered early when selecting and positioning outdoor seating.
Different users have different requirements. Seat height, back support, armrests and the space around furniture can all influence how easy a seat is to approach and use. Seating layouts should also allow people with different mobility requirements to sit alongside family, friends and other users.
For architects and landscape architects, considering these requirements as part of the overall hard landscape design is more effective than trying to address accessibility once locations and groundworks have already been fixed.
SELECT MATERIALS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
Seats and benches are available in materials including timber, steel, stainless steel, concrete, stone and other low-maintenance materials.
There is no single material that suits every project. Selection should consider appearance, exposure, frequency of use, vandalism risk, maintenance requirements and the expected service life of the scheme.
Timber can introduce warmth and contrast into hard landscapes, while steel and stainless steel can provide a robust contemporary finish. Concrete and stone seating can work well where mass, permanence and integration with the wider landscape are important.
The finish should also coordinate with adjacent litter bins, planters, bollards, cycle parking and other street furniture to create a consistent external environment.
Richard Burns, Graduate Business Development Manager at BSFG, explains,
“Material choice is about more than appearance. We want to understand where the seating is going, how exposed the site is and how heavily it will be used. That helps us steer the specification towards something that will perform properly over the long term,”
SEATS AND BENCHES FOR DIFFERENT PROJECT TYPES
BSFG works across outdoor public areas, education, transport, residential and commercial projects, where seating requirements can vary considerably.
Public realm and landscape projects
Town centres, parks, pedestrian areas and regeneration schemes need seating capable of coping with regular public use and prolonged exposure to the weather.
Here, seating often becomes an important part of the landscape design. Layout, materials and finishes can help establish a clear visual identity while creating places for people to stop, meet and spend time.
Selecting products as a coordinated family can also help architects maintain consistency across larger sites rather than introducing unrelated items from several manufacturers.
Education, residential and commercial developments
Schools, universities, residential developments and workplaces increasingly use outdoor areas as usable amenity space rather than simply circulation space.
Seats and benches can support informal meetings, social interaction, rest areas and outdoor learning. On residential schemes, carefully positioned seating can also help turn courtyards and communal landscapes into spaces residents are more likely to use.
Durability remains important, but comfort, appearance and integration with the building and landscape design become equally significant.
Picnic tables and communal seating
Where people are expected to eat, work or socialise outside, tables and integrated seating can complement conventional benches.
The Brunswick Picnic Table combines a robust steel structure with timber and is suited to communal outdoor environments such as education, parks and amenity areas.
The Greengate Picnic Set provides an integrated table and seating arrangement for parks, campuses, public spaces and commercial settings, while the Lena Table gives specifiers another option for developing coordinated outdoor social spaces.
WHAT SHOULD YOU CONSIDER WHEN SPECIFYING OUTDOOR SEATING?
Fixing and installation
Fixing methods need to be coordinated with paving, foundations, drainage and finished levels.
Leaving this detail until late in the project can create unnecessary work for groundworkers and installers. Confirming product locations, fixing requirements and interfaces at design stage gives contractors clearer information and reduces the risk of changes on site.
BSFG's in-house CAD capability can support this process with technical drawings and visualisations, helping project teams coordinate products within the wider landscape design.
“Installation is much more straightforward when seating positions and fixing requirements have been agreed early. If we can work through those details before the groundworks are complete, it reduces the likelihood of someone having to adapt finished surfaces or change the layout on site,” comments Alice Rolfe.
Maintenance and whole-life value
Initial product cost is only one part of a seating specification. The durability of materials and finishes, replaceable components, cleaning requirements and anticipated maintenance should also be considered.
For heavily used public environments, selecting products around long-term performance can prove more economical than choosing solely on the lowest tender cost.
This is particularly relevant when external works packages come under value-engineering pressure towards the end of a project.
Coordinate the complete external works package
Seats and benches rarely sit in isolation. They normally form part of a wider package containing litter bins, planters, cycle parking, shelters, bollards or other external infrastructure.
Using a coordinated supplier can simplify specification, procurement and installation while reducing the number of interfaces a contractor needs to manage.
BSFG's Design to Delivery approach covers design support, manufacture, delivery, installation, project support and aftercare. For architects, this provides access to technical guidance during specification. For main contractors and sub-contractors, it provides a clearer route from product selection through to installation.
WHY SPECIFY SEATS AND BENCHES WITH BSFG?
BSFG brings together a broad range of street furniture alongside cycle infrastructure, shelters and canopies, bollards and barriers, and sport and play equipment.
This allows project teams to specify more of the outdoor environment through one supplier, helping maintain consistency across materials and finishes while simplifying procurement, logistics and aftercare.
“With external works, seating is usually only one part of what the contractor has to procure and coordinate. Being able to look at the furniture, cycle parking, bollards, planters and other elements together can remove a lot of separate conversations and help keep the overall scheme consistent,” comments Richard Burns.
With UK design capability, manufacturing facilities in Cheshire and dedicated installation teams, BSFG can support projects from early specification through to completion.
Whether you are developing an initial landscape specification, pricing an external works package or preparing for installation, contact the team here at BSFG about the seats and benches suitable for your project.
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