Vanemuise Street

On Vanemuise Street in Tartu, Timpan is illuminated street furniture: a bench that also lights the ground around it. On a working city street, it is somewhere to sit and something to light the path after dark.

Location: Tartu, Estonia
Year: 2020
Architect: AB Artes Terrae
Client: Tartu City Government
Photography: Uku Peterson

Timpan benches along a sunlit Vanemuise Street promenade with pedestrians, Tartu

Timpan public seating on Vanemuise Street in daylight, a car passing behind, Tartu

Mother and child walk past a Timpan bench near the Vanemuine theatre, Tartu

Timpan takes its name and shape from the timpani, the orchestral drum. Curved seating pods gather around a centre, with soft ambient light held low. We rotomould the bench from semi-transparent polyethylene. The shell is durable, impact-resistant, and vandal-resistant illuminated street furniture for a busy Tartu street.

Row of illuminated Timpan benches leading to a lit building entrance at night, Tartu

Timpan bench glowing from within at dusk, teak top above a lit polyethylene bowl, Tartu

The seats are synthetic teak on waterproof plywood, timber to the eye and the hand. It carries none of timber’s upkeep on a city street. As illuminated outdoor seating, Timpan works as both a bench and a source of low landscape lighting.

Woman and child seated on a Timpan bench as a cyclist passes on Vanemuise Street, Tartu

As public space lighting in daily use, the rotomoulded shell resists weather, wear, and vandalism. Its integrated LED elements stay accessible for service, and each unit anchors securely through its base. Cleaning is standard: dirt and graffiti wash off the polyethylene.

Timpan illuminated street furniture glowing at night as a person walks a dog, Tartu

Three Timpan benches glowing beside stone gateposts after dark, Vanemuise Street, Tartu

The Vanemuise Street reconstruction was nominated for the Estonian Landscape Architects Union annual award in 2021. Timpan is one of un-like’s standard products, an illuminated bench we make as a stock piece. We install it where a street needs seating and light. See more of our illuminated furniture.