Is money tight? Do you feel you practically live at the mall (or wish you did)? A group of inventive artist decided that they would do just that. In Providence, RI this group of artists went to the parking garage of a local mall and created a false cinder block wall to create a 750 sq foot space.

Secret mall apartment

They added a very plain looking utility door some furniture, a tv, a waffle iron, and even a PS2 to pass the time and they had their own little island in the local mall. All in all they secretly brought in over 2 tons of materials to build this secret hide away. There they lived for about 4 years. Life in the mall

The group spent time walking the mall and documenting various aspects of life in the mall from the number of signs to surveillance cameras to the water lines to cataloging what items stores carry and rating them for a project called “Malllife”. According to one of the artist, Michael Townsend, “The mall has something really positive to offer, something that has nothing to do with shopping….” Consider that there are many social firsts there for many families in sub-urban life. Where do you go to spend your first paycheck, or meet people that are not your neighbor or hang out with classmates? According to Townsend, the mall is designed from the ground up to be an escape from the pressure and grind of daily life and offer a sort of vacation away from work and daily life.

I admire their ingenuity and their ability to take a portion of the “mall experience” and make it their own in finding ways to find comfort in a center of commerce. However, I tend to find the idea of living in a mall and cut off from the world of nature depressing. If our lives are now so limited that we to look to malls as our source of experiential connection with the world around us then we have lost touch with what matters.