Motorway Service Areas

An ongoing research project 

We experience motorways as a continuously moving stage-set. The artist Edward Chell compares it to the “20th century revved up equivalent of the country park” saying “As we drive, our relationship to the sculpted ravines of motorway gorges, sudden lateral views and bridges changes; different vistas open out and suddenly shut down as we move through the landscape”

Throughout academic studies and ongoing research trips I have focussed on our relationship with both the landscape and infrastructure. Studying one of the backbones of our economy, the motorway, with a particular focus on Motorway Service Areas. Those somewhat alien places where we stop to rest on long journeys and in some form or another engage with the landscape that we find ourselves in. 

In their co-authored book ‘The Autonauts of the Cosmoroute’ Carol Dunlop and Julio Cortazar describe them as “The place of time and truth, where life still has two legs and two arms, while the robots of the freeway lie still, dispirited, dead in their silence and powerlessness” 

This research hopes to shed light on the importance of these places of respite for all and to develop key considerations for future Service Areas. It has recently been utilised as a playful dot-to-dot feature in the zine (un)learning that was produced by NOOMA for the Architecture Fringe Festival.