The Fire Ring: an XL Social Furniture

The Fire Ring, a 10 meter diameter bonfire ring at the lakeshore of Uster, is part of a series of interventions which are a territorial reading of and then experience of the city’s surrounding landscapes, each anexpression of the glacial history of the region in its various stages.

The Fire Ring interprets the traditional fire ring anew, playing with the archaic power of fire to gather people, and transforming the simple tree trunk to create both a sense of large scale community and niches of intimacy.

The Fire Ring is based on the American cowboy concept of “sitting around the campfire” but at the jumbo scale of a bonfire, where anyone who cares to join is welcome. It is a place of social gathering and sense of common enjoyment and participation regardless of with friends or strangers.