Truckitecture
12 pages, limited riso print of 50 copies. Digital version below.
A Note for the Reader
I have written this comic to communicate a speculative design that grew out of the increasingly dire socio-political climate we find ourselves embroiled in. We all know what’s happening. We are standing at the precept of disaster, as the new normal has turned into a domino of drastic climate events, unaffordable housing and the never-ending polarization of social classes. In response, I have created an alternative reality, one that projects users into a world not too far from ours today.
As I speedily approach the looming adult working world, I have been grappling with my desire for liberation from the traditional idioms of social structure, whilst trapped in a seemingly inescapable complacency. This yearning for freedom from a capitalist society led me to the growing trend of contemporary hippies that quit their day-jobs, buy Mercedes Sprinter vans, and travel the world (if this is news to you, just google “Quit My Job and
Bought a Van”). But what if this nomadic resurgence was not something that was restricted to middle class millennials that can afford mobile living with all the bells and whistles?
Putting on the often misconstrued rose coloured glasses of hippie nostalgia brought me to delve into architecture and planning theory from the late 60s and early 70s, a time of comparable political and social unrest. It should be noted that this was also a time in which most published work was written by old white men. From these theories I pulled a new theoretical framework on which to base the de-centralization of the city. The story that follows draws similarities from the counterculture movement, and reflects on it as a way of looking forward towards a new urban re-ordering that emerges from fluid territories. Truckitechture and its alternate domesticities play in the gap between hippie-ness and modernism. Emerging from ideas of radical architecture, in which all planning processes are reduced to zero, Truckitechture illustrates a time in which we also migrate into unplanned space, and poses the question; could nomadism be applied to the masses?
As I speedily approach the looming adult working world, I have been grappling with my desire for liberation from the traditional idioms of social structure, whilst trapped in a seemingly inescapable complacency. This yearning for freedom from a capitalist society led me to the growing trend of contemporary hippies that quit their day-jobs, buy Mercedes Sprinter vans, and travel the world (if this is news to you, just google “Quit My Job and
Bought a Van”). But what if this nomadic resurgence was not something that was restricted to middle class millennials that can afford mobile living with all the bells and whistles?
Putting on the often misconstrued rose coloured glasses of hippie nostalgia brought me to delve into architecture and planning theory from the late 60s and early 70s, a time of comparable political and social unrest. It should be noted that this was also a time in which most published work was written by old white men. From these theories I pulled a new theoretical framework on which to base the de-centralization of the city. The story that follows draws similarities from the counterculture movement, and reflects on it as a way of looking forward towards a new urban re-ordering that emerges from fluid territories. Truckitechture and its alternate domesticities play in the gap between hippie-ness and modernism. Emerging from ideas of radical architecture, in which all planning processes are reduced to zero, Truckitechture illustrates a time in which we also migrate into unplanned space, and poses the question; could nomadism be applied to the masses?
want to keep reading?
free download
new comic coming 2023