Landscaping the grounds of the Metropolis residential complex

What we made

Along the walkways, in the courtyards and by the entrances stand benches from the catalogue — Sete and Urban N — and Rock concrete bins. Some of the benches have no back: a faceted concrete support, a timber seat, nothing more; those went on the open squares and along the bands of ornamental grasses. Others have a back and armrests, set in rows along the lawns and by the ground-floor shopfronts, where people sit for longer.

The long seats were made for the complex specifically. They run along parapets and retaining walls, follow the turn of the space and in effect draw its edge. No catalogue holds that length or that line: this is not a model chosen from a list but a form made for one particular site.

The bollards separate the roadway from the pedestrian part. The complex's monogram is cast into their faces — the mark is not stuck on and not painted on, it is part of the piece itself.

A regular partner since 2021

The first pieces went in on the grounds in 2021, and the work did not end there: batches kept arriving — for new courtyards, new entrances, new stretches of landscaping.

For a complex built out in phases, that is the main argument for a single manufacturer. A bench installed this year stands next to a bench from 2021 and has to read with it as one series: the same form, the same colour of concrete, the same choice of timber. Adding to a run of the same model is easier than hunting for a match at a new supplier later.

Concrete in a residential courtyard

A courtyard works without weekends and without an off-season: snow and de-icing salt, downpours, summer sun, bicycles and scooters. The pigment is mixed into the body of the concrete rather than applied on top, so a scratch or a chip does not expose a different colour under a layer of paint — unlike painted metal. The surface is treated with a water repellent.

Timber is left only where people touch it — on the seat. Everything else is carried by the concrete: the mass, the durability and the geometry. A concrete support is heavy in itself, so a bench stays where it was put.