3 Tonne ‘o’ Space

Consider a van, workhorse utilitarian vehicle such as a 3 ton Mitsubishi Canter Van, as an exquisite white volume. Opening the double rear doors reveals a precise and defined interior 2.1 x 2.1 x 4.2 metres in dimension, its clean empty atmosphere starkly contrasting the cluttered and dirty exterior.

Without windows, and therefore no visual access, the van interior is hidden anonymous and unknown. Across the world there are countless van interiors identical in their make up, exact in their dimensions, matching in their same white internal material. Every day these vans will be packed with a new composition of objects, a remarkable transformative interior that is sealed and hidden to the outside world.

A van interior when loaded and full is a complex collection and arrangement of objects, tightly packed, carefully stacked and slotted together, often disparate items interlocking side by side. Its construction is a frustrating and playful game of design. In this state it is a highly compressed, dense and impenetrable interior, its very nature excludes us from viewing it in terms that we are used to.

The interior, if considered at all, is suggestive of impending events. It is a constantly shifting and moving interior. As well as literally being a mobile space it is an interior that imposes transformation. The action of packing, the transportation and then the unpacking of objects into a new context forces both deliberate and unintentional design and production of space at every moment. At its destination the dense hidden interior expands and reconfigures itself into its new setting, the van interior returns to its pristine empty state.