Rob Meek Seating Installation

This seating installation celebrates the life and work of Rob Meek.  After quite a few concepts (a half scaled ferro-concrete racing hull of the yacht Rob sailed to Rio, a series of jelly beans, a platform with a wheel) we settled on a concept based on Di Meeks visit to Paris, where a series of sleepers are placed on chocks along the Seine, creating seating ‘moments’.

In order to contextualise our installation, we used old Balau decking removed from the Waterfront to accommodate the new development. We found that by cleaning the timber up, removing the stainless steel screws, and setting it thin side up we could create our own bespoke sleepers.  Because old Balau is difficult to glue, we sandwiched the pieces with 4mm rubber spaces, all held together with stainless threaded bar.

We then took this sample to Kimon Mamacos in the Hout Bay harbour, where he used his overhead horizontal track saw (run by a Nissan 1400 car engine) to cut the sample to size. 

Kimon has built this seating installation, and using the rubber spacer idea, he took it one step further, and filled the top 5mm or so with Sika black yacht deck caulking, which is not only practical in terms of keeping moisture out of the gaps, but also refers to yacht deck technology.

We’re all mighty proud of the end product, a fitting and long-lasting tribute to a remarkable person who was so instrumental in the creation of the Waterfront.