And Go Round and Round and Round in the Circle Game, then abruptly stop and face a single direction

in the past several years i have given a lot of thought to how to setup an indoor space for prayer. it seems there are two major schools of thought:

1. The Single Direction Approach in which folks face the same way (often East)
2. The Circle Approach in which folks sit in a large circle or concentric cirlces

The Single Direction Approach has the advantage of getting more people in less space. This can often have a strong positive impact on intensity of ruach as people hear other folks better and the dynamic feedback can create more energy. Some people prefer the personal space they get from this setup. I imagine the personal space advantage some cite is linked to the fact that you can't generally see anyone else looking at you (the people you can see are in front of you and they can't really see you, the people who can see you are behind you and you can't see them). This distinction may be marginal but it may be psychologically significant to the feeling of privacy.
The SDA has the connected drawback of diminishing people's ability to all see eachother and thus makes subtle tempo and melody shifts more challenging for the shaliach tzibur* to create.

The Circle Approach has the advantage of people being able to see eachother and relate to other folks more directly. I suppose for some this interconnection would be viewed as a drawback. The Circle Approach proponents i daven with tend to talk about it in terms of emphasizing the value of the community and valuing the connections within the community. It demonstrates a caring about who is in the room and who is praying with whom.
The drawback here, aside from the non-privacy, is that many use a big circle which is terrible from a ruach standpoint. The dead space in the middle is like the bermuda triangle of energy. People sing and it's as if pirates abscond with the sonorous vibrations intended for the kahal and the one.

Concentric Circles begin to address this problem but they create the problem of figuring out how to get in an out and should always have at least one and preferable two aisles. So i suppose we are really talking about facing semi-circles.

Sometimes these approaches are combined. I find especially awkward the situation where the community has clearly decided to prioritize seeing each other and actively sharing the experience by sitting in a single circle and then come barchu jump up and face one direction. To the best of my knowledge there is no halachic reason to daven any piece of the service except the amidah with a specific direction. The amidah is generally davened towards J-town.
It is especially ironic that barchu (a leader calling her community to prayer) is so often sung to a wall. It is not the wall which is being beckoned to praise the lord in song, word, and soul--it is the people. So why say it to a wall? Unclear.
Perhaps we could have a focusing kavvanah before singing barchu to a wall.
Maybe something like:
O wall, may your solidness inspire us to support this world, may your porousness inspire us to be open ourselves, may you shelter us in peace. amen.

The point is that it is weird to sit in a circle and then stand unidirectionally. There are major merits to both approaches, but generally, it seems, they are best off not mixed.

[also, a quick thank you to Eli Braun who once, while at the Brown Havurah of which we were both founders, as we stood up and faced east for some non-amidah piece of maariv, asked "have our values just changed?"]

*on wikipedia shaliach tzibur points to hazzan which caused me to wince. perhaps that should get fixed.