---
title: "This bench stays dry because its normal position is closed"
locale: "en"
url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/lausanne-self-closing-bench-default-state-en"
markdown_url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/lausanne-self-closing-bench-default-state-en.md"
category: "creative"
tags: ["design", "street furniture", "mechanics", "Lausanne", "maintenance"]
published_at: "2026-08-23T16:15:00.000Z"
author: "Léa Perrin"
translation: "https://irz.fr/fr/articles/lausanne-self-closing-bench-default-state-fr.md"
---

# This bench stays dry because its normal position is closed

In Lausanne, a seat folds under a small roof as soon as you stand up. The passive mechanism protects the wood, trading rain and dirt for springs, a hinge and one extra action from the user.

A public bench spends most of its day with nobody sitting on it, and one recently filmed in Lausanne uses precisely that idle time: **when the user stands up, springs return the wooden seat to a vertical position beneath a small metal cap**.[1](https://www.core77.com/posts/145128/In-Switzerland-Self-Closing-Public-Benches-that-Stay-Clean-and-Dry)

Rain then hits metal rather than the surface somebody will sit on, and birds meet the same cap. To use the bench, a person folds the seat down; once seated, body weight keeps it open.[1](https://www.core77.com/posts/145128/In-Switzerland-Self-Closing-Public-Benches-that-Stay-Clean-and-Dry)

The interesting idea is therefore less about the spring than the **default state**: a conventional bench waits open and tries to withstand whatever lands on it, whereas this one waits closed and exposes its useful surface only while that surface is in use.

## Default state

In many products the resting position is chosen for mechanical convenience, but here it becomes part of the maintenance strategy because the spring can fold the seat as soon as the load disappears, without a rain detector, weather forecast or command.[1](https://www.core77.com/posts/145128/In-Switzerland-Self-Closing-Public-Benches-that-Stay-Clean-and-Dry)

> Kinematics
> **Two states suffice**
> - Springs return the seat upward. The wood parks beneath the metal cap.: Empty
> - The user opens the seat, then body weight holds it in the useful position.: Occupied
> The command is neither a button nor a sensor. It is the presence of a body.

This is subtler than simply specifying a water-repellent material: instead of trying to make wood immune to weather, the mechanism reduces the portion of the day during which the horizontal seating surface can directly collect water, leaves or droppings.

The issue is hardly marginal in Lausanne. A mudac guide to the city's street furniture estimates **about 2,500 benches**, usually spaced 200 to 300 meters apart and more closely on steep terrain.[2](https://mudac.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/mudac_Balade-en-ville_design-des-bancs_livret-parcours.pdf) At that scale, being easy to service and maintain belongs in the design brief alongside ergonomics and appearance.[2](https://mudac.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/mudac_Balade-en-ville_design-des-bancs_livret-parcours.pdf)

## Avoiding rain

Lausanne's traditional green bench, installed since 1955 and still common in its parks, already handles water in another way: gaps between twelve wooden slats prevent water from stagnating, while a thick finish protects the fir from weather.[2](https://mudac.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/mudac_Balade-en-ville_design-des-bancs_livret-parcours.pdf)

The two strategies are almost opposites, since the historic bench accepts wetting and encourages drainage while the folding bench tries to reduce the amount of rain reaching the seating face in the first place.

> Weather
> **Two strategies**
> - Fixed seat: gaps between slats, surface protection and drying after rain.: Drain
> - Folding seat: reduce exposure by parking the wood beneath a cap at rest.: Shield
> One simplifies the mechanism; the other tries to simplify the condition of the surface after a shower.

The second choice can also protect the sitting surface from some dirt falling from above, including the bird droppings Core77 mentions; the bench remains an object that needs cleaning, of course, because the cap, sides, ground and mechanism still need attention, but the surface that matters most to a sitter spends less time exposed.[1](https://www.core77.com/posts/145128/In-Switzerland-Self-Closing-Public-Benches-that-Stay-Clean-and-Dry)

## Hidden price

Protection adds hardware: where a fixed bench can be reduced to slats, supports and fasteners, this arrangement needs at least a pivot, a return system and moving interfaces, each of which creates another condition to inspect, from play in the joint and corrosion to spring fatigue, debris in the rotation path or a return force that weakens over time.

We found no manufacturer datasheet, maintenance plan or cycle-life test for this exact bench, so the evidence cannot support a claim of lower maintenance cost; **the design trades a visible surface problem for a more localized mechanical one.**

That exchange may be excellent if the mechanism runs for years while shielding the wood from repeated wetting and cleaning, or poor if springs and pivots require more visits than the surface they protect; a viral clip cannot settle the lifetime cost of that trade.

## Body control

There is, however, a clear economy in the architecture, with no motor, battery, rain sensor or software: the user supplies the energy needed to open the seat, and body weight supplies the condition that keeps it open.[1](https://www.core77.com/posts/145128/In-Switzerland-Self-Closing-Public-Benches-that-Stay-Clean-and-Dry)

This is exactly the sort of function a city could easily over-equip with an occupancy sensor, a motor, a rain detector and a power supply, whereas the spring does much less and directly converts a quantity that already exists, the load of the user, into mechanical state.

> Control
> **No network**
> - A hand folds the seat down.: 1
> - Body weight opposes the spring return.: 2
> - When the load disappears, the seat returns beneath its cap.: 3
> Purely mechanical automation, with no stored electrical energy or electronics to maintain.

The word “automatic” therefore deserves a qualifier, because only the closing action happens by itself; opening still asks something from the user.

## Access first

That extra action exposes the most important compromise: a public bench is more than an object exposed to weather, because it is rest infrastructure used by people with different strength, mobility and numbers of free hands.

Lausanne publishes a technical sheet specifically for accessible benches. It notes that conventional seating is around **50 cm** high, proposes **70 cm** for some resting points intended for people with reduced mobility, recommends armrests and calls for at least **1.40 m of clear lateral space** so a wheelchair user can position beside the bench.[3](https://www.lausanne.ch/dam/jcr%3A0567a2cc-dbb6-4602-a8f8-7c464c933402/Guide-NPT.pdf)

> Accessibility
> **Beyond the seat**
> - typical seat height in the Lausanne guide: ≈50 cm
> - height proposed for some reduced-mobility rest points: 70 cm
> - recommended clear lateral space: 1.40 m
> General values from Nature pour tous; they do not describe the folding bench in the video.

We have no measurements to judge this particular bench against those criteria, including the force required to open it, and that missing number matters before anyone calls the design a better public bench: someone using a cane, carrying a child or with limited arm strength may value a dry seat while finding the opening gesture less welcoming than a fixed one.

Passive design keeps the interface; it simply moves that interface into the mechanism.

## Unknown maker

There is one more oddity in the viral story: Core77 says the benches were spotted in Lausanne and credits the Hey Switzerland account, but gives no designer, manufacturer or precise location, while its source link points to an Instagram profile rather than a product sheet or technical project page.[1](https://www.core77.com/posts/145128/In-Switzerland-Self-Closing-Public-Benches-that-Stay-Clean-and-Dry)

We searched public material from the city and mudac without finding a match that would support a clean attribution; the mudac guide documents eight Lausanne seating families and identifies designers, materials or installation dates, while this folding bench is absent from that guide.[2](https://mudac.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/mudac_Balade-en-ville_design-des-bancs_livret-parcours.pdf)

To be sure, the absence of a product sheet says nothing about whether the filmed object exists; it limits the claims we can make, because the kinematics are visible and described by Core77 while the industrial provenance remains unestablished in the sources we found.

## Passive mechanics

The bench is still a useful design lesson because automation can begin without a sensor, with a smaller question instead: **what position should an object occupy while nobody is using it?**

Answering “closed” lets a handful of mechanical parts reduce exposure, and although that choice adds moving components plus a user action that create new problems to measure, it does something more interesting than a gadget: the change of state itself becomes the protective function.

The best test comes years after the next rain shower, when somebody can measure the opening force, the percentage of mechanisms still working and the maintenance time actually saved; **a spring looks simple on installation day, while public furniture measures simplicity in thousands of cycles.**

## References

1. [Core77, ‘In Switzerland, Self-Closing Public Benches that Stay Clean and Dry,’ August 20, 2026](https://www.core77.com/posts/145128/In-Switzerland-Self-Closing-Public-Benches-that-Stay-Clean-and-Dry)
2. [mudac, ‘Balade en ville — design des bancs,’ guide to Lausanne street furniture](https://mudac.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/mudac_Balade-en-ville_design-des-bancs_livret-parcours.pdf)
3. [City of Lausanne, ‘Nature pour tous,’ technical sheet 11 — accessible benches](https://www.lausanne.ch/dam/jcr%3A0567a2cc-dbb6-4602-a8f8-7c464c933402/Guide-NPT.pdf)