ICC street bench has wheelchair users in mind

An application has been filed with the Town Planner for permission to install a bench outside the ICC designed specifically to be inclusive for people who use wheelchairs.

The bench is the brainchild of the team from Gamma Concepts, led by Ruth Massias Greenberg, which made it to the final of an international competition called Street Seats for their innovative bench design.

Their bench, B_Tween, is billed as “a physical manifestation of inclusivity, has a space in between for wheelchair users to sit in between friends or strangers on public street benches, rather than to the side.”

‘The most important part of our bench, is where is there no bench at all,’ is B_Tween’s tagline.

Gamma Concepts drew their inspiration and guidance from Benji Borastero, a well-known local Paralympian, who helped inform the designers on accessibility and how a wheelchair user would slide into the space.