Design and Fabrication

Since 2009, we’ve worked with architects, industrial designers, fabricators, and architecture students to design, build, and deploy award-winning pop-up infrastructure for public space. In 2022, we hired our first Design Lead, bringing design capacity in-house.

We fabricate designs ourselves and in partnership with two shops that have worked with Street Lab from the start, Bancroft Design and Jaywalk Studio. We put new ideas on the street quickly, refining designs over time as we deploy them 500+ times a year across the city. And when something works on the streets of New York, we make it for other cities too.

A brief history of our design collaborations:

The first design we brought to the streets of New York consisted of a series of magnetically connected, angular cubes that could be stacked to make a bookcase, with yellow protrusions that could double as benches. It was designed for Street Lab by architects Höweler + Yoon and built by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under the supervision of Professor J. Meejin Yoon (of Howeler + Yoon) in 2011. The project was featured in the U.S. Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale, and won an A+ Architizer award in the learning category.

Launched on Kickstarter:

The second design for NYC was a cart that unfolded to reveal shelves, inspired by co-founder Sam Davol’s years of touring with stage cases as a musician. It was also designed by architects Höweler + Yoon and was fabricated by Höweler + Yoon in June 2013.

Working with Bill Bancroft Furniture Design in 2015 and 2016, we then made further adaptations to this cart design, adding additional programs and developing custom solutions for partners.

In 2016, we worked with architect Joana Torres of Oficina Design to develop a design for a portable information sign and kiosk.
In 2017, we began working with Jaywalk Studio to make improvements to our original bench design, streamlining fabrication of benches for other organizations and cities.

In 2018, working closely again with Bill Bancroft, we developed designs for moveable tables and material storage units based on Tangram puzzle pieces.

In 2020, we collaborated with Büro Koray Duman to create a colorful table system that could be flat packed for transport between our locations.

Since 2020, we’ve invested in Street Lab’s in-house capacity to design and build new ideas for the street. During the pandemic, this capacity allowed us to design and build PLAY our “no-touch” obstacle course during lockdown and launch it on the street on the very day restrictions were lifted, providing a safe place for kids to play. Our most recent designs include Street Lab Tri-Tables, One Big Table, One Big Bench, Meet a Small Business, OASIS, and IMAGINE.

A view of adults and children spending time together on the street.
A wooden chalk board that has "Imagine with Decatur" written on it.
A view of adults and children spending time together on the street.
A view of adults and children spending time together on the street.
A view of adults and children spending time together on the street.
A view of adults and children spending time together on the street.
A view of adults and children spending time together on the street.

Design and fabrication credits