Hidden clues uncover seats' history

An evolution inspired by the original: Victorian style seating in Albert Park will robust, durable and more comfortable.

From City Scene, published on 20 July, 2008

A straightforward brief to replicate the Victorian style seats in Albert Park, as part of the Albert Park renewal, soon uncovered the secret they had been hiding.

Matthew von Sturmer of MVS Studio, the firm engaged to make the new seats, says the team discovered that what were thought to be original seats were in fact more recent copies with a number of alterations done at different times. "As castings taken from originals can be up to 3 per cent smaller, the 50mm difference in dimension between some of the seats indicated that some were already casts, which begged the question which ones were the original?" Further investigation identified three seat ends that were most likely to be originals but none of these were identical.

Chairperson of the council's Arts, Culture and Recreation Committee, Councillor Greg Moyle says that a conscious decision was made to make the seats an evolution inspired by the original as opposed to a straight replica. "The new seats are robust and durable and use the same cast-iron technology as the original, assisted by the latest computer technology and engineered to last into the next century."

"They have been produced with double the volume of cast iron, improved ergonomics, and soft-shaped elliptical hardwood seat slats to make them even more comfortable than the originals," he says.