Trà Đá Stool Set
Design by: Exutoire

Introduction

Exutoire was founded in Oslo in 2019 by two architects and researchers, Paul-Antoine Lucas and Bùi Quý Sơn. The studio is currently based in Hanoi.

Practice Perspective

Exutoire operates as a critical spatial practice, focusing on issues of social equity, space, and materiality through architecture. The team aims to create spaces, objects, and platforms such as exhibitions, publications, or podcasts. These forms are used to disseminate and provoke diverse perspectives that are often overlooked in society. With a reflective spirit, multi-layered references, and open collaboration, Exutoire functions as a creative outlet. This approach provides a method to question familiar patterns while promoting shared values oriented toward the community.

Design Intent

The Ice Tea Set (Low Stool and Low Table) reflects the playful and lively nature of Hanoi’s streets. Their intermediate dimensions allow for flexible use, extending beyond mere seating. As a set, it is a continuation of the studio’s research on “Artefacts of Assembly”, a series of critical social space experiments. The prototype was first used in a performance at the Hào Nam roundabout. The studio sought to create a temporary horizontal space from an existing public area. This occupation is envisioned as an act of “queering” space: reimagining it beyond its traffic-regulating function into a potential space for public life.

“We wanted to create a temporary horizontal space from an existing public area,” the studio shares. “This occupation is an act of ‘queering’ space, aiming to reimagine it beyond its traffic-regulating function, as a potential space for public life.”

Dimensions: 416 × 416 × 359 mm
Materials: 8mm MDF panels (matte lacquer finish), stainless steel hinges