Park Furniture - 25 years on Ponsonby Road

Public furniture is an interesting product to design; its prime purpose is practical, yet they also hold a lot of symbolic meaning - home to the many in-between, ordinary moments of our lives; conversations, dates, a place of meeting, a pause in time, a moment of reflection. 25 years ago, we designed and made these cast iron seats for Ponsonby rd - our aim was to make a durable and timeless chair. Seeing Ponsonby change throughout the years, once home to our first shop, Zealous, and apartment, to now some of our fav new eateries....it has always been a hub of creativity, food, wine, community and art - and these seats have really seen it bloom throughout the years. These seats, in many ways, define our business; products that are made for people and made to last.

Antimicrobial Copper - Making hardware during COVID19

Well, what a year 2020 has been. We have been making bronze hardware for over 20 years and chose many moons ago to use a high copper content bronze (min 94%)  now more than ever this has been a vital decision. 

WHY CHOOSE BRONZE?

This high-copper based bronze is more durable, hardwearing, creates a beautiful natural patina and it is lead-free. As well as these rather awesome features, Copper is also antimicrobial (meaning it kills up to 99.9%, of bacteria). Studies have shown surfaces with high copper alloys in hospitals showed up to a 90% reduction in the numbers of live bacteria on their surfaces. 

In a world where surfaces are now a threat to peoples health, it has been comforting to know that our products have natural antimicrobial properties, especially when considering that stainless steel, a common hardware material actually harbours bacteria and supports growth. 

We do note the abundance of fake news and misinformation being-spread in 2020, so we have linked some academic studies into the antimicrobial properties of Copper if you are interested in further reading.  

SCIENCE STUFF:

Mitra, D., Kang, E.-T., & Neoh, K. G. (n.d.). Antimicrobial Copper-Based Materials and Coatings: Potential Multifaceted Biomedical Applications. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES, 12(19), 21159–21182. https://doi-org/10.1021/acsami.9b17815

Sekhar, J. A., Mantri, A. S., Saha, S., Balamuralikrishnan, R., & Rao, P. R. (n.d.). Photonic, Low-Friction and Antimicrobial Applications for an Ancient Icosahedral/Quasicrystalline Nano-composite Bronze Alloy. TRANSACTIONS OF THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF METALS, 72(8), 2105–2119. https://doi-org/10.1007/s12666-018-1535-1

https://theconversation.com/copper-is-great-at-killing-superbugs-so-why-dont-hospitals-use-it-73103

https://www.copper.org/publications/newsletters/ba-news/2010/january/article3.html