Bamboo Fibonacci Bench
November 2024
TAKE LAB.+ Ethical Bamboo
UBE, Yamaguchi, Japan
ⓒ2024 Akio Hizume
Bamboo Fibonacci Bench
Demension 4.5mｘ4.5m ｘ1.8m
Around 40 moso bamboo plants, freshly cut from a neighbouring bamboo grove, were prepared.
The temporary assembly has just been completed.
The person in the photo is Takuma Ogawa, an assistant staff member on this occasion.
In the background is last year's work 'Bamboo Fibonacci Tunnel'.
When the temporary assembly was completed, a visitor arrived unexpectedly.
The child loved the bench and played with it for more than two hours without getting bored.
He seems to have invented various games using the structure of the bench.
Once dismantled, it was reassembled at the exhibition site. The relocation took less than 30 minutes.
The excess parts have been cut off and the chamfering has been completed.
Together with the quasicrystal sculpture in the background (back left) and the Fibonacci Tunnel (back right), the permanent exhibition trilogy is now complete.
As the bamboo in the upper layers could fall out if this was not done, the whole structure was tethered together with a single 'Nankin-binding'.
The structure is now independent of gravity and will not fall apart even if it is thrown out into space.
In addition, a secondary structure was added to serve as a spiral staircase and a bed and table for napping.
Explanatory text below.
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Bamboo Fibonacci Bench
The leaves and petals of most plants are known to be arranged in a golden angle (about 137.5 degrees).
Plants realised hundreds of millions of years ago that this would allow them to receive sunlight more evenly and also make them less prone to collapse, and so they flourished as we see them today.
This is known as the Phyllotaxis Principle.
It is clear that the application of the phyllotaxis principle to architecture would result in buildings that are resistant to earthquakes and have good daylight and ventilation.
However, no such man-made architecture exists on earth yet.
Using the foliage principle, I have built a bench that can seat up to 34 people at once.
If everyone sat down, it would literally look like a 'human flower blooming'.
Each seat is scattered in the golden angle, so even if the place is full, it won't feel too cramped.
You will be able to relax and talk with other people without having to face them or turn your back on them.
When the Fibonacci bench is viewed from directly across, the silhouette is designed to be parabolic.
In this way, the area over which one person sits is almost constant.
The curved surface created by the Fibonacci bench is a 'paraboloid', which is the shape of a parabolic antenna itself.
In a sense, the Fibonacci Bench is an observatory that observes the centre of the Earth, the third planet in our solar system, which is the most familiar.
You can enter the dome through a gap in the bench.
It could be fun to live in a house with such a ceiling.
The ceiling is low, so be careful not to hit your head.
If you sit in the centre of the dome, you might hear the sound of the earth's inner core.
November 2024
Akio Hizume
16 November, first day of Bamboo Festa at the Bamboo Lab.
Children spontaneously gathered on the the Bamboo Fibonacci Bench.
Some primary school children played here for five hours.
The children seem to instinctively know how to use the bamboo Fibonacci bench.
The child seem to be reading a '3D book' called The Fibonacci Bench.
They seem to be enjoying the golden ratio and the freedom of bamboo.
They demonstrate that they are never bored about Golden Ratio.
It is the abstract rather than the figurative structures that stimulate children's imagination/creativity.
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Ethical Bamboo
Ube City
