Through their exclusive North American licensing, Hightower introduces Levels, soft, rounded, modular bench seating from award-winning, international design powerhouse Form Us With Love. With an entirely fresh perspective on open seating for public areas, Levels is based on simple shapes, a hybrid of furniture and architecture, creating functional, uncomplicated wow factor for hospitality, education, healthcare; any space where people congregate or transition.
Hightower worked with Stockholm-based Form Us With Love (FUWL) the studio having landed at the top of Fast Company’s 2020 ‘50 Most Innovative Companies’ for their efforts in sustainable and adaptable industrial design, particularly workspace furniture. In designing Levels, FUWL considered the ways in which people dwell, as well as the thought process of humans as they approach common space areas. Shared FUWL Co-Founder & CEO Jonas Petterson, "The ways in which people dwell within a space can be particularly divergent. Choices for taking respite are often informed by the anxiety we all feel in a shared common space. In designing Levels we asked, ‘how can we create a concept that lets people relax within a dynamic convivial space?’"
Responding to this question through design, Levels can be described simply as two pillars supporting a beam. Grouping the benches in the Levels system means users can position themselves at varying heights, facing different directions, the result being subtle yet compelling: division while still sharing a space, privacy in public settings without using walls or dividers, together yet separate. By sitting at different heights, facing different directions, and with distance between one another, Levels provides needed personal space without isolation. Added John Löfgren Creative Director for FUWL, “Levels is just one of the ways to take a mental minute... suggested through materiality, shaping, and compositions.”
The Levels benches come in three heights and three lengths that can be mixed-and-matched to create seating for a wide range of indoor shared spaces breaking the monotony that can come with open environments. Levels can be specified as a single item – for spaces like retail store windows or small reception/waiting areas – or in large configurations for offices, lounges, universities, healthcare settings or communal spaces like galleries and museums.