The Empty Room: Fragmented Thoughts on Space

By Reza Aliabadi

Part aphorism and part manifesto, this book by Canadian architect Reza Aliabadi (RZLBD) references his ideas and thoughts about space.



He suggests ‘the empty room’ as the very essence of architecture, and ‘the spatial experience’ as its highest mandate. Reza revisits architecture – not as the walls that enclose the space – rather the space in-between the walls. What he calls an “anti-architecture” of invisible voids.



Today architecture has fallen short as a discipline and has instead converted into an industry, part of commercial establishment. Accordingly it has given up its capacity to offer contributions and has been reduced to being a service. It has become all about a form-making exercise and dressing it up with a fashionable skin.



Now, it is necessary or rather urgent to pause, take a moment, go inward, search for the essentials, and hope to rediscover a principle which is at once basic and timeless.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Actar
• Release date: Apr 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638409342

Reza Aliabadi

Reza Aliabadi (born 1974), known as RZLBD, is a Canadian artist and architect of Persian origin. He is the founder and principal of Atelier RZLBD; an art & architecture practice based in Toronto, named after a pseudonym he adapted that reflects his interest in abstraction and reduction. His repertoire of work extends to making arts, crafting objects, designing buildings, curating installations, and publishing a zine called rzlbdPOST. From a 17mm wedding ring to a 56km long housing proposal, his portfolio has been distinguished with numerous accolades; exhibited in many venues; and celebrated in more than one hundred print publications. In 2017 RZLBD has been selected among the top emerging design talents in Canada. In the same year the first monograph, RZLBD Hopscotch, was published by UK-based Artifice; it recognizes RZLBD selected built projects by collecting essays, project profiles, and annotated drawings. In 2020, Actar published a pocket-sized manifesto written by RZLBD entitled, The Empty Room; the book intends to portray the room and the emptiness as the essence of architecture. Starting 2023 he is named the first Vignelli Center Designer in Residence, and at the moment he divides his time between Toronto ON & Rochester NY.

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