Date: July 23rd 2008

Vacuum Suction Conveyance, part 1
Meredith TenHoor

Sunday July 27, 6pm
at common room 2

Please join us for a Sunday presentation by Meredith TenHoor (light refreshments will be served).

In 1970, with Western cities spilling into suburbs and a looming energy crisis, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development convened a group of architects, engineers, and town planners to report on new environmentally sound methods of moving goods around cities. Radical schemes for pneumatic grocery delivery, vacuum suction rubbish removal, and automated freight management were presented and, later that same year, published in the Technology Assessment Revue.

Consigned to offsite storage warehouses of university libraries and long forgotten by think tanks, these proposals accumulated nearly four decades of dust until they were recently unearthed by one of our more zealous researchers. Finding them quite relevant to the challenges of 2008, Universal Fittings Ltd has invited a self-appointed representative of the fully-automated, centrally-planned town Etarea (the most compelling town plan presented in the Technology Assessment Revue) to give a presentation at its offices. She will discuss the town's evolution over the past 35 years and the merits of living in a city free of delivery truck traffic. After the presentation, Universal Fittings Ltd will allow interested parties to pre-order necessary components for the construction of a similarly automated town.

Meredith TenHoor's research focuses on the politics of urbanism, architecture and consumption. She is currently writing a history of architecture and biopolitics in postwar Paris. Other recent projects include an exhibition and a book manuscript about Fulton Street Mall in Downtown Brooklyn (with the Center for Urban Pedagogy and the design firm Project Projects) and a publicly-accessible work space and architecture library at the Metropolitan Exchange in Downtown Brooklyn. She is a Ph.D.candidate in Architecture at Princeton University and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Graduate Architecture Program at Pratt Institute.

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This presentation is taking place as part of Universal Fittings Ltd in conjunction with the exhibition Universal fittings by Rey Akdogan at common room 2.

Universal fittings is a print project by Rey Akdogan that features a selection of propositions for the lobby space at 465 Grand Street/common room 2. Each Sunday during the months of July and August Universal Fittings Ltd will be located at 465 Grand Street and is proud to invite you to a series of performances, talks and screenings.

July 6, 8pm: Rachel Mason - The Last Days of Saddam Hussein
July 13, 8pm: Craig Buckley - Screening: Alain Resnais: My American Uncle (1980)
July 20, 2pm: Alex Kitnick - Putting our heads together
July 27, 6pm: Meredith TenHoor - Vacuum Suction Conveyance, part 1
August 3, 2pm: Eric Anglès - open edition 2N7
August 10, 6pm: Nader Vossoughian - The Permanent Temporary City

at common room 2
June 29 - August 15, 2008

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common room 2
465 Grand Street - rear lobby
New York, NY 10002
tel.: 212.358.8605
www.common-room.net

open hours: mon-fri 9am - 6pm
or by appointment

Directions:
Take F train to East Broadway stop. Exit at rear of platform if coming downtown or front of platform if coming from Brooklyn. Walk East on East Broadway just past Pitt Street. Use Rear Entrance on East Broadway.

Map link:
http://www.onnyturf.com/subway/?address=465+Grand+St,+New+York,+NY+10002

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common room
465 grand street 4c
new york, ny 10002

t: 212.358.8605
f: 212.358.8609

www.common-room.net