Toòng Teng is a room divider that explores the idea of privacy through the lens of memory, movement, and care. The name comes from a Vietnamese reduplication describing danling things, capturing the physical quality of the piece. Growing up in my childhood home, privacy was never defined by walls or enclosed rooms. Spaces were shared, and boundaries were non-existent. My grandmother’s bed, placed under the stairs where people frequently passed by, became a strong reference point for this project, an in-between space that was neither fully private nor public.

Rather than creating a rigid boundary, Toòng Teng proposes a softer, more permeable form of separation. The yarn panels filter space instead of blocking it, allowing light, movement, and interaction to pass through. Inspired by beaded curtains and architectural details from my childhood home, the piece invites touch and engagement, recalling moments of childhood play. The oversized scale of the yarn and the act of knotting further embed a sense of care and connection into the object. Through this work, privacy is reimagined not as isolation, but as something gentle, flexible, and lived, that is held within the rhythms of everyday life.

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