Project: Yggdrasil
Author: Javier Masa Rodriguez
Javier Masa (NMASA Design) is creating a dual-function prototype that serves as both a planter and a bench support.
This project combines a planter and bench into a single urban artifact, reinterpreting the ecological and social role of trees in Barcelona’s infrastructure-constrained plazas where conventional planting is impossible.
Yggdrasil is a collection of urban furniture that reimagines the city through integrated greenery, sustainable material innovation, and expressive use of colour, texture, and ornament. It shifts public space from purely functional objects toward environments that support ecology, sensory richness, and social use.
At its core is a modular planter system that introduces vegetation and enables trees and ecosystems in constrained urban areas. Around it, seating and plant-support structures provide shade and shelter, replacing conventional poles and canopies. Vegetation is central, shaping both function and form.
The project explores recycled fibre reinforced polymer as both a sustainable alternative to materials like metal or concrete and as an expressive medium with depth and texture. Curves, reliefs, and varied finishes create a new design language that departs from rigid urban furniture.
Inspired by Barcelona’s esgrafiats, the design translates layered patterns of colour and geometry into a contemporary material language where surface, form, and pattern merge.
Presented as a prototype, Yggdrasil proposes a more ecological, sensory, and materially innovative vision of urban furniture and public space.
