Blok : modular urban furniture by Grégory Lacoua

Blok is a project of urban furniture imagined by the designer Gregory Lacoua. A modular system to create urban spaces without artifice, implemented in the district of Etterbeek in Brussels, where two public squares have been invested.

Inaugurated in 2021 with the installation at Espace Sorelo and Lieu-dit Ranch in Brussels, Blok is a modular urban furniture system in two parts, independent of each other. The assembly of these two elements offers different combinations and volumes according to the needs. Blok modules can be used to structure an entire urban space with the possibility of creating various elements such as a stool, a long bench, a chair, a bench seat, an armchair, a standing seat, a low wall, a boundary…

This transformation project in the Etterbeek district, located near the European district, aimed at creating, in a first step, a coherence of spaces. Indeed, the accumulation of signs, materials and different elements of urban furniture sometimes obstructs the reading of uses. The project of Blok furniture was therefore in a dynamic of clearing the space, for a better and orientation and structuring of the places.

In terms of aesthetics, and in order to best adapt to each environment, the furniture elements have been stripped of ornaments and superfluous details to avoid cluttering the public space with unnecessary signs. A simplicity that Gregory Lacoua has transcribed by the use of Roquemaillère stone, from a Roman quarry in Nîmes.

Maïa Pois