Living at the Mall (For Real!)

Artist Michael Townsend was inspired by a Christmas-time ad about how wonderful it would be if he could live at the mall. And so, for a project on mall life, he built himself an apartment in the mall’s parking lot!

Michael Townsend, 36, said he and seven other artists built the 750-square-foot apartment beginning in 2003 and lived there for up to three weeks at a time. The artists built a cinderblock wall and nondescript utility door to keep the loft hidden from the outside world.

But inside, the apartment was fully furnished, down to a hutch filled with china and a Sony Playstation 2 although a burglar broke in and stole the Playstation last spring, Townsend said.

There was no running water instead they used the mall bathrooms.

Link | Michael’s account of the experience – via Spluch