‘Pushwagner’s magnum opus, the graphic novel Soft City, is as feverish as a nightmare acid trip. Across 154 now-yellowing original sheets, in thin pen lines, a numbed world unfolds in relentlessly repetitive detail. It pictures identical family units en masse, going about identical lives, in apparently infinite identical flats and offices, in tower blocks that stretch upwards and outwards forever.

The story is simple and circular: get up, take a pill, kiss the baby, go to work, punch in, punch out, go home, kiss the baby, go to sleep. Everyone frogmarches to the same rhythm, ruled by the clock (if you’re late, you’re fired). Everyone drives – the multistorey car park is a major fixture. Everyone’s happy: for Soft City inhabitants, the mind is as much a prison as the routine lifestyle and oppressive architecture. There is no sky; there is no way out.

Soft City was created in the 1970s, fuelled by a dystopian vision the artist shared with his friend and mentor, the counter-culture novelist Axel Jensen, whose celebrated science fiction books he illustrated. The graphic novel then disappeared for decades, in which Pushwagner’s life went on a downward spiral from making art to marital breakdown, heavy drug use and, in the late 1990s, two years sleeping rough.

In his native Norway, the septuagenarian is now a celebrated square peg, as notorious for his wild lifestyle as he is for his unforgiving comic art. Literally “picked up from the gutter” by his manager, Stefan Stray, he’s only been more widely appreciated in the last decade. The recently rediscovered Soft City was one of the standout works in the 2008 Berlin Biennale, while a Norwegian documentary released last year chronicled his topsy-turvy life.’ By Skye Sherwin, Guardian 09/08/2012

The  building departs from traditional notions of design, being based on mathematical equations that dictated the layout of the ninety apartments, as well as the Castle’s siting. It almost reminds me of the structures found in the Futuroscope theme park.

Kafka’s Castle brought international attention to Bofill’s architectural firm, Taller de Arquitectura, which is known for colourful and innovative designs.

‘The complex is an assemblage of prefabricated cubes that are based on two mathematical equations that generate their placement in relationship to the vertical circulation towers in addition to the overall site design.’ AD 22/03/2011.

‘Bofill and his team employed two equations that would lead to the volumetric design of Kafka Castle. The first equation generated the number of room capsules that plug into the stair towers. While the second equation determined the height of each spiral progression around the stair towers.  Aside from the prefabricated elements, the two equations provided a non standardized design based solely off a generative process that created volumetric overlapping and close proximal juxtapositions that begin to create interior voids within the cubic composition.

The pods, or cubes, are small prefabricated units that because of their size and scale to the overall organizational system only contain one room or space allowing for each pod to have a direct connection to the centralized stair tower.  The cubes are designed in such a manner that each cube contains one important spatial element to the overall construction of the apartment units.  One cube may have a bathroom-bedroom or they may have a living room-dining room combination.’ by Andrew Kroll, AD 22/03/2011

All images © Ricardo Bofill

Poble Espanyol Barcelona

The aim was to produce an “ideal model” Spanish village, a synthesis of monumental Spain. The architects that designed the town were Francesc Folguera and Ramon Reventós. In total, the town was built in 13 months, and although it was only needed for 6, for the exhibition, it was not demolished and was kept open as a museum.The museum occupies a total area of 42,000 m² and contains 117 buildings, with streets and squares reproduced to scale.

Check it out via the link below:

http://unmakingthings.rca.ac.uk/2013/youve-never-seen-anything-like-it-central-milton-keynes-2/

‘BC- Before Concrete

AD- After Development’

‘Predominantly a glamorous place’

Performing in front of John Lewis

The High Street, Stony Stratford, c.1907.

Photograph of Milton Keynes centre taken in the 1990s, ‘the finest grid road system and shopping centre in the world’.

Insert: Buckingham County Council architect Fred Pooley with model of his original plan in 1964.

Japanese Precision Walking Competition

PLAZA – Working at the Mall

At PLAZA we’re fascinated with the glamour of the shopping mall. Glistening marble floors, gushing water features and soft soothing music. Do you ever wonder what it’s like for the people manning the tills whilst you treat yourself to a girly afternoon at Westfield? What is life like for the teams spending their days  toiling away at The Trafford Centre?

Malled – Caitlin Kelly

When we stumbled across ‘Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail’ by Caitlin Kelly, we had a great opportunity to find out. After losing her job as a journalist and the security of a good salary, Caitlin Kelly was hard up for cash. Suddenly she found herself, middle-aged and mid-career, thrown headfirst into the bizarre alternate reality of the American mall: a world of low-wage workers selling overpriced goods to well-to-do customers.

At first, Kelly found her part-time job fun and reaffirming, a way to maintain her sanity and sense of self-worth. But she describes how the unexpected physical pressures, the unreasonable dictates of a remote corporate bureaucracy, and the dead-end career path eventually took their toll. As she struggled through more than two years at the mall, despite surgeries, customer abuse, and corporate inanity, Kelly gained a deeper understanding of the plight of the retail worker.

PLAZA decided to interview Caitlin to find out more…