Milton Keynes' newly psychedelic Station Square gets rave review from top architectural critic

Milton Keynes City Council last week unveiled the result of its £100,000 investment to transform the previously drab and dingy square into a work of art and talking point for the city’s main gateway.

They hired British-Nigerian designer and artist Yinka Ilori to paint the entire space in a riot of colours and patterns worthy of the title ‘Walk With Your Dreams’.

One of the early visitors was renowned architectural critic and author Rowan Moore, who admits he was immediately dazzled – literally.

In his column in The Observer, he describes how men in in hi-vis jackets were adding the finishing touches to the project as he arrived.

"The only things is, their backdrop is such a riot of yellow and green (also mauve, orange and blue) that they’re in effect wearing camouflage… They’d stand out more if they were wearing grey suits.” he writes.

Moore adds: “It’s hi-vis for MK – a new image for a city whose most famous previous artwork was concrete cows. The square will be a place for lingering and gathering; also for commuters striding to and from their trains. One of the design’s functions is to guide people to a pair of underpasses that lead to the rest of the city centre.”

He observes that the concept seems to diverge from the “cool, gridded modernism” that is the dominant style of central Milton Keynes.

"it taps into a psychedelic hippiedom that was an equal and opposite aspect of the city’s making. According to one account, Milton Keynes was ’built under a fog of marijuana smoke and Pink Floyd records’, with pyramids, mounds and circles inspired by prehistoric earthworks.

"Its central avenue – Midsummer Boulevard – aligned like Stonehenge with the summer solstice sunrise. Ilori’s circle, which marks the start of the boulevard, connects with this druidical geometry.”

The 3,000 sq metre floor painting, which Ilori himself likens to “what Nigerians wear when they go to weddings”, could have been an artistic disaster. Instead, it’s a vibrant success story – literally.

“It pushes to the limit the proposition that colour and pattern – paint, in a word – can revitalise a place,” says Moore. “..colours that, according to any concept of good taste, should clash and fight, but instead communicate messages of positivity and hopefulness.

"It’s a simple enough concept, and one that might have ended up tokenistic and flimsy, but Ilori brings it off. It works through scale and dazzle, the bravura with which he can combine almost any colour with almost any other."

He concludes: “Its appeal is direct. “I can’t wait to bring my kids here” says one of the men who made it, whose usual job is painting oil rigs.”

‘Walk With Your Dreams’ was commissioned by MKCC and Milton Keynes Development Partnership.

On a practical level, it will help guide pedestrians towards the city centre and underpasses, as well as creating a welcoming public space at the city arrival point.