Our built environment is made largely of substances that were once liquid and molten
—plastics, asphalt, glass, concrete, and metals—all former soups, heated to hundreds
or even thousands of degrees. Over time, these materials are worn down through use,
consumption, and waste, eventually ending up ignored, neglected, and scattered in
fragments or samples, driven by chance into corners of the city.
Ex Soup is an open-source design practice that builds furniture from found materials,
industrial residues, and waste. Through urban dwelling and exploration, we experiment
with new ways of assembling the city within the domestic space.
We work by remixing and re-appropriating technologies and materials—sampling and
looping objects from a Tropikos perspective (understanding the Tropics both as a
geographic region and as a way of thinking). By engaging with the material life of a
place, we aim to trace the urban algorithm, uncover the stories embedded in everyday
objects, and generate new meanings from the ordinary materials that surround us.