Direction without orientation, A Talk By Common Room

20H & Free!
Jan Breydelstraat 5
9000 Ghent

Common Room is an architectural practice with a publishing imprint, and an exhibition space. it is collaborative platform based in New York city and Brussels. Common Room is comprised of architects Lars Fischer, Maria Ibañez and Todd Rouhe; Rachel Himmelfarb; architectural researcher Kim Förster; and graphic designer Geoff Han.

The ring for 019 (produced in collaboration with Sleeperhold Publications) is a distortion of a circular steel ring designed by common room for Dexter Sinister at Stella Municipal Cinema (Athens)—later moved on to Radio Athènes—which was an adapted re-production of a circular steel ring designed by common room for Casco (Utrecht) based on a re-interpretation of a circular steel ring by ifau & Jesko Fezer for the Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building (New York) based on a re-production of a steel ring by common room produced for ‘Dexter Sinister Presents Common Room (Circular)’ (New York) which was a re-consideration of the original steel ring designed by Aldo van Eyck for the architect’s apartment, Amsterdam, 1948, which he described as:

“My very first circle in space with the quality of place—what with the seat, warmth from the stove—and the little mystery that circles do occasionally provide… It’s the ring and the disc
I’m particularly attracted to—not radials, which is why I draw circles, round odd tins, saucers and plates instead of using a compass (the ancient Peruvians worshipped both the sun and moon, were incomparable highway builders, yet highway builders managed without wheels).”