Problem
Built-in seats are great. Everybody loves them. They make a building feel comfortable and luxurious. But most often they do not actually work. They are placed wrong, or too narrow, or the back does not slope, or the view is wrong, or the seat is too hard. This pattern tells you what to do to make a built-in seat that really works.
Solution
Before you build the seat, get hold of an old arm chair or a sofa, and put it into the position where you intend to build a seat. Move it until you really like it. Leave it there for a few days. See if you enjoy sitting in it. Move it if you don’t. When you have got it into a position which you like, and where you often find yourself sitting, you know it is a good position. Now build a seat that is just as wide, and just as well-padded—and your built-in seat will work.
Related Patterns
… throughout the building - Sequence of Sitting Spaces (142) - there are alcoves, entrances, corners, and windows where it is natural to make built-in seats - Entrance Room (130), Alcoves (179), Window Place (180). This pattern helps complete them.
Once you decide where to put the seat, make it part of the Thick Walls (197), so that it is a part of the structure, not just an addition - Thickening the Outer Walls (211)
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 924.