This project lies in the relationship between cars, images, lights, speed, time and space on the Westway at night. A spectacle of commodty to condition consumers for the consuemrist fantasy that defines the West End.
If the Westway, this massive, unavoidable, tour de force of brutalism, is inherently a failure of the Metropolis dream the Smithsons and Le Corbusier so vivdly describe, then how could one make their dreams work? What new techniques and technologies could be tactically used to condition the traveller on the Westway to partake in the consumerist dream that awaits? How could one emphasis the glistening bodywork Le Corbusier so vivdly describes, using it as a design component to seduce and entice?
Hunting goods in a wilderness of speed, shiny, glistening metal work and saturated coloured adverts are elements one could tactically implement on the Westway. With the death of the high street being proclaimed, how could the Westway serve as an example to all, to excite and condition the consumer to want to roam through the city as opposed to ordering online? If Amazon is the virtual jungle that is reticently navigated by the consumer, how could the Westway be the physical, architectural jungle to hunt down objects of desire: an information safari? Is the notion of an architectural wilderness of adverts, flashing lights and glistening bodywork something sacred to be cherished, when easier options such as Amazon already exist? With all universal shopping hubs such as Westfields positing the idea of a slow, eutechnical Safari of consumerism, what part could the Westway play in giving consumers an experience of travelling through space and time at speed to satiate their consumerist desires? This projects seeks to visually interrogate the time spent pursuing our consumerist fantasies.