Stacked & Strapped Bethel, NY Bethel Woods Center for the Arts BuildFest 2: Peace Rises

Stacked & Strapped is a small Peace Pop-up created for the 2025 Bethel Woods Art and Architecture Festival. Conceived as a large bench, the installation invites visitors to sit, gather, recline, and engage with one another. During the day, the bench celebrates the beauty of the banal, while at dusk it transforms into a lantern glowing from within. The installation’s elements – lumber, spacers, LED lights, and ratchet straps – not only give the bench its tectonic character but also anticipate their reuse after the festival. Assembled with uncut dimensional lumber and held together without fasteners, the pop-up is designed with a lifecycle in mind that extends beyond the 2025 event. Stacked & Strapped simultaneously deceives and enchants. It embraces a low-tech assemblage and contemplates about its future intervention.

Team: Benjamin Vanmuysem, Allyson Devine, Abigail Lagana, Nihar Menon, Allison Motler, Jack Zhang

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