At first glance, Seoul’s Root Bench looks like a giant wooden sculpture spreading across the grass. Then you realize the entire 30-metre-wide structure is actually a public bench. Designed by Yong Ju Lee Architecture and completed in 2018, its branching form was generated using a reaction–diffusion algorithm—a model inspired by patterns found in nature. I like how the algorithm isn’t just a technical trick here. It helps turn something as ordinary as seating into a piece of landscape architecture, where people can sit, lie down, lean, or gather.
It’s a bench, but it feels more like a place.