Development of Urban Park Public Seating Design Strategies in the Post-pandemic Era

¹ Faculty of Design and Architecture, Department of Industrial Design,Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
² Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Art and Design, Yuxi Normal University, 653100 Yuxi, China
³ Department of Occupational Health and Safety,Kampus-C, Universitas Airlangga, Jl. Ir. Soekarno, Surabaya 60115, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: velu@upm.edu.my

Abstract

Urban parks have the characteristics of a relatively concentrated population. Seating as products with a high frequency of public use, they have significantly influenced residents’ activities in the epidemic environment. The current design of public seating in parks during the pandemic needs to meet the needs of different people. Thus, the purpose of this research is to meet the needs of the different populations in many aspects of urban park seating objects during the pandemic. This paper integrates literature to develop an urban park seating object strategy in the post-pandemic era. This paper analyses the design factors and design strategies of urban park seating from four aspects based on the current situation of the post-pandemic social environment. The four areas are function, aesthetics, materials, and safe social distance. The results show that the seat’s functional design is crucial. However, aesthetics, materials, and safety cannot be ignored. In addition, people are more concerned about seat safety in the post-pandemic period. Therefore, public seating design strategies for urban parks in the post-pandemic era are developed based on these four aspects.