While walking in the woods upstate last week, we came across this ad hoc bench positioned across from a massive, ancient tree. The bench had been forged out of the forest’s own materials, without nails. We love the asymmetry of the stump pillar on one side, and the pile of flat rocks on the other, supporting a thick slab of sawn wood, bark intact. The bench was completely stable and comfortable, and the wood slab ample enough to lie down on, to look UP into the mighty tree.
The ad hoc bench follows a classic design that we love and that is do-able using all sorts of materials: two heavy pillers supporting a slab, like these beauties from Casa Malaparte:
More slab-and-pillar iterations here.
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Among the cognoscenti, these are knows as Stonehenge benches. After a century or two, the wood rots and disappears, leaving only the supports.
Cosmic.