Bakau

Modular because the room had no square corner to build against , it roots into whatever shape it finds.

Bakau is the mangrove: the tree that holds this region's coastline together by rooting directly into moving water. It seemed the right name for a sofa designed to hold a room that would not sit still.

The apartment at Thao Dien is riverside and almost entirely glazed, and its living room has no square corner anywhere in it. Rather than force a fixed sofa against a wall that was not straight, we drew Bakau as four modules — two seats, a corner, an armless end — that can be recombined as the room, or the family, changes.

The teak frame is exposed at the back and sides, because in a glass apartment a sofa is seen from every angle and there is no honest back to hide. The wool is umber, close to the silt the river carries after rain.