Ubu

Ubu took many unexpected turns from its inspiration to the drawing board to prototype, but it began as a humming feeling in a serene Italian park. While a resident in Milan, Christopher Streng became fascinated with the park culture that emerges out of life in a country ripe with outdoor and public meeting places. In the Parco Sempione, Christopher was inspired observing the quasi–algorithmic movements of congregating children running back and forth from one shady spot to the next, sitting on whatever they could find — low–slung chains, Panettone concrete castings, soccer balls...

In that lively place, Christopher had the vision of an object that could fulfill the function of a movable, outdoor seat for urban social migration His function–oriented vision took on a definitive shape and look that distilled the inspiring visual presence of Italian bicycle racks into Ubu. Reminiscent of organic formations into which the park children grouped themselves, the bike racks, "looked like animals, like little herds or flocks," and developed into the emotional blueprint for the final result. Shaped by it's successful launch into the American market, Ubu has gone through many incarnations to become the candy–colored, gel–coasted success a favorite of celebrities like the lucrative Paris Hilton.