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Designer Dining Table Doubles as Divorce Therapy

Dutch design artist Fenna Rooijakkers created 'The Dinner Club' installation to keep families together.
Images courtesy of the artist

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.

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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.

To see more of Fenna Rooijakkers’ work, visit her website

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