In September 2005, as part of London Design Festival, the rubber band was given an entirely new purpose by Tom Dixon. His idea was to apply it as upholstery to a giant public bench installed in London’s Trafalgar Square.
12,000 super size rubber bands were used, wrapped around a ready-made 75 metre industrial bench system by Kee Klamp ltd. As Tom suggested, the design is reminiscent of ‘a very British, Heath Robinson type of contraption’. The motivation behind the Trafalgar Square project was to suggest the possibilities of the humble rubber band, the potential of Latex as an undervalued, renewable, manufacturing material and also comment on the under-utilisation of key public spaces.