Designer Dining Table Doubles as Divorce Therapy

July 13, 2016, 9:55am

Table and chairs are placed on an unsteady platform in The Dinner Club, an installation which requires those seated at the table to work together to find a balance. Growing up, Dutch designer Fenna Rooijakkers always loved the tradition of the family dinner, which she calls the “the skeleton that kept [her] family together,” but when her parents got divorced and her sister moved out, Rooijakkers had to find a way to navigate the new tensions and bonds within her clan. When therapy failed, The Dinner Club became a way of doing that—a physical space that required a communal effort. Rooijakkers says that her family feels like The Dinner Club helps to resolve their problems and create unity.

The table in The Dinner Club rests on a base plate made from multiplex and MDF, which in turn rests on a steel half-orb. A circular indent on the base plate allows the stools to shift positions, so that the weight of the diners can be adjusted for. Rooijakkers explains that a pre-arranged strategy, and occasionally some math, is important for a successful seating. The Dinner Club was showcased at Rooijakkers’ graduation show in Tilburg. Like The Dinner Club, Rooijakkers’ other designs are intellectually stimulating, including a lamp designed while impersonating a fictional character.