Nature Carpark

APFEL/A Practice for Everyday Life

There are various ways to punish the population for their unruffled passivity. One of the worst of these is the installation of street furniture. Strictly speaking, this comprises such things as comfort-denying benches and movement-neutralizing flower urns, but it also includes the hygienic modernity of bus stops and enhancement of public plazas by committees of prescribed art. A purely minimal consensus rules over public space like a built-in kitchen, effectively restraining all irritation.

In the face of this tradition it is an act of rebellion to install sixteen-metre long nature panoramas on the exhaust-blackened brick wall of a public carpark. When the panoramas then even show circling wild birds and a pale blue summer sky, thus overwhelming the necessary carpark lighting with an artificial horizon, a surprising discrepancy arises between the design’s emotionally refreshing illusionism and its dreary location. The design strikes a sugary note that is constantly contradicted by the stark functionalism of the car-park facility. The exaggeration of natural associations thus becomes an exaggerated complemented compliment to an adversary - definitely unsuitable in its ponderousness, if not outright hostile - and the jovial charm flips around into faint and barely detectable derision. Thus the ‘Whitechapel Centre Carpark’ becomes a narrative about ambition and limits in the retrospective enhancement of urban architecture. It is a short and uncommon comedy, which Kirsty Carter and Emma Thomas have staged next to the parking stalls. Thereby whether the comedy is about the character of our cities or the nature of design projects remains an open question.

Whitechapel Centre Nature Carpark, London

Commissioned by / im Auftrag von Cityside Regeneration

Design for public space / Gestaltung im Öffentlichen Raum

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