During the summer of 2006, in a Polish provincial town, I observed the following situation: In front of an apartment block building were two benches which formed a small aisle. Whenever someone entered or left the building, this passageway always had to be walked through. All generations sat there together. Grandmas remained longer on the benches, while Others gave only one short welcoming ritual before they entered the house. I thought to myself: In this place, old people don't have to spend the entire day at home - alone.

My fear to end old and alone in an anonymous house and an anonymous city was indeed my first motivation to start this project. I wanted to stimulate the promotion of the often underestimated values of benches in public spaces. A systematic study of this democratic communication platform occurs to me as a good start. To keep the project into some boundaries, I decides to focus my research to the european capitals.