Kapok

A sofa you fall into rather than perch on, lifted just clear of the floor on a walnut plinth.

Kapok takes its name from the silk-cotton tree that once stood in every kampong yard, whose floss filled the bolsters and mattresses of old Singapore households. The tree is largely gone from the estates now; the habit of a deep, forgiving seat is not.

It was drawn for a family in Bedok who asked for one thing: a sofa you fall into, not one you perch on. The seat is 680mm deep and the back cushions are loose, so the piece slumps honestly with use instead of holding a showroom shape. The walnut plinth lifts the whole mass 90mm clear of the floor, enough for the sofa to read as light from across a room that is not large.

The bouclé was chosen the way we choose a floor finish: for how it looks in year ten. It takes equatorial sun without going flat or yellow, and it can be brushed back after a decade of Sunday afternoons.