TRESTLE's 'settle' installation turns movable furniture into public interior

A movable furniture installation by TRESTLE has transformed the crypt of St Luke's in Cork City into a temporary public interior, and it will travel to further civic spaces across Ireland over the coming months.

Called settle, the installation draws on the functionalism and adaptability of Irish vernacular furniture to propose a public interior for gathering and collective experience in the contemporary city. Studio TRESTLE designed and curated the project, which won a 2026 Arts Council of Ireland Architecture Project Award. Stevan Hartung fabricated the exhibition, and Willem Pab photographed it in St Luke's crypt, where it was presented in summer 2026.

The premise is straightforward: an infrastructure of carefully considered objects can form a temporary public interior. Settle's components can be rearranged and reformatted for different events and gatherings, allowing the installation to adapt to different civic settings while maintaining a coherent spatial framework.

A framework for collective use

TRESTLE positions public interiors as part of what Hannah Arendt described as a shared 'common world of things'. The studio references Arendt's writing on the importance of that shared world in framing the project's argument. Settle responds to social structures that increasingly prioritize individual life, alongside the shift of everyday interaction toward digital spaces, by examining the role of tangible, situated rooms for public use.

Rather than a fixed interior, settle generates its spatial order through a movable arrangement of objects and architectural gestures. The project explores a prototypical public interior through spatial order, thresholds, material character, repetition, and variation. Because the elements move, the interior can be recast for different uses.

Material character contributes to the identity of the temporary interior, while repetition and variation organize its arrangement. The collection of functional objects establishes the spatial framework and allows the interior to change according to its use, creating a flexible setting for collective gathering beyond the digital realm.

Reuse as a climate response

The project also treats reuse as a response to the climate emergency. Settle focuses on how existing buildings can accommodate new forms of public life. The crypt of St Luke's — a found structure rather than a purpose-built venue — demonstrates that approach.

Through its collection of functional, movable objects, settle creates a temporary civic interior that can be occupied, adapted, and reused across different locations. The installation is set to be installed in a number of civic spaces over the coming months, testing whether a furniture-scale infrastructure can sustain public life wherever it lands.

Project information:

• Name: settle
• Designer: TRESTLE
• Location: St Luke's crypt, Cork City, Ireland
• Award: 2026 Arts Council of Ireland Architecture Project Award
• Exhibition fabrication: Stevan Hartung
• Photographer: Willem Pab