Assignment: Thoughtless Acts

Collaborators:

So, as it turns out, I lack any ability to get photos off of my cameraphone. So much for convenience. So imagine, if you will:

A stream runs between Dwinelle and the Student Center west of Sather gate. There is a bridge over the stream, but the path over the stream slants diagonally so that, if coming from the student center you either have to turn back or take a roundabout path to get to the plaza in front of Dwinelle.

Luckily, there is also a concrete dam over the stream that happens to make a very short path between the two buildings. Even though there is water flowing over the top quite often, shortcutters have worn a path down the slope, through the trees, and across the narrow makeshift bridge.

I find that path design is generally quite capricious, especially on college campuses. It seems to me that there should really be more of a spirit of revision when it comes to paths, especially as colleges understand that they need to keep the grounds neat, especially around grauation. Why not redo the paths along those beaten by students rather than post KEEP OFF THE GRASS signs come March?

Also, when I thought about this assignment I realized that the internet had provided a wonderful source of missed design opportunities. It's called failblog.org. If you filter out all of the pictures of cats, people falling, can car accidents you're left with a small but sweet nugget of design that could have been. An example is attached. The knee-jerk solution is to build a fence, but perhaps the better solution is to increase the amount of parking, or reevaluate parking fees.