Erica Long

Doug, what is Super City?

Douglas Coupland

It's a fairly massive sculpture project which is opening at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal on June 11, 2005.

Erica Long

Why is it called Super City?

Douglas Coupland

Part of the inspiration for it was this utopian building kit made in 1967 and 1968 by Ideal Toys. It was a modernist kit - children could build skyscrapers, research laboratories and pharmaceutical factories. It was a beautifully made system, but it was almost impossible for small fingers to work with, so it died a quick death on the shelves.

Erica Long

What will the piece look like?

Douglas Coupland

It's fantastically detailed cubic volume, 12'x12'x12'.

Erica Long

What's the theory behind it?

Douglas Coupland

It's the first in a series of CCA projects that explore the generics of the city as an experience and as mental construct. It suggests how the building kits we use as children inform the world view and the artefacts we construct as adults. After many decades of cultural saturation, kits themselves have begun to feed themselves back into the constructed world - to the point where it's hard to tell where their influence begins and ends.
Montreal was also the site of many 1960s-related superprojects, and the show ties into that on one level.

Erica Long

Which other kits besides Super City influenced you?

Douglas Coupland

So many of them - obviously Lego. And Tog'l, Tinkertoys, Meccano and this kit from Europe called Matador.