Architecture and design studio T Sakhi has transformed security barriers into seating as part of a series of urban interventions aimed at creating social places for locals in Beirut.
The multidisciplinary studio founded by Lebanese-Polish sisters Tessa and Tara Sakhi wanted to introduce changes to Beirut's urban topography that make its public spaces more engaging.
This resulted in two interventions, Lost in Translation and Holidays in the Sun, that both provide places to sit down in the city.
The stool is is made from repurposed security barricades known as Czech Hedghogs
The various security barriers are unsightly and have negative connotations, which T Sakhi aimed to reverse by giving them an alternative and more civic purpose.
Tessa and Tara describe the output of their studio as "hybrid works that are often playfully subversive and provoke new modes of human interaction". The intervention provides a place to sit in a city with little public infrastructure
The sisters acquired a permit to remove damaged security barriers known as "Czech hedgehogs" from the streets and transform them into stools.
The designers repainted the structures, which are made from three interconnected steel beams, and added sling-like fabric seats so people can use them to sit down.

For the Nature Barrier that forms part of Holidays in the Sun, it was more cost effective to manufacture new pieces than repurposing existing ones.
The design reinterprets the metal crowd-control ...