Walkways

[pne]

As I went to the supermarket just now, I noticed some paths that had been formed by people walking over certain areas of grass over and over until no grass grew there any more… there was not only one path but several, close together, depending on where certain people had chosen to cross that particular bit, I suppose.

It reminded me of what I had read about a university that had been newly created; according to the story, the architect designed the campus with its buildings but designed no roads or footpaths on the campus. Instead, he simply had grass sown in between all the buildings.

After a year, the students had trodden down certain areas and created footpaths themselves; at that point, he had those paths made permanent by re-creating them with concrete or something. In this way, the architect said, the footpaths would be not those some architect thought were the most suitable for connecting the buildings, but the most useful by the "democratic vote" of the many students who had laid down the routes.

Comments

[timwi.livejournal.com]

It is however a somewhat biased democratic vote. When analysing this system, it is important to notice that as soon as such a "trail" has formed enough to be clearly visible, it encourages other students to walk along the same path, either to spare as much of the grass as possible, or just to go with the masses. Therefore, the people who are there first have a somewhat more powerful vote than latecomers.

[joyitude.livejournal.com]

-random- Oy. You're watching cassiaopeia. Everything in there is Friends-Only, if you like, I'll add you. It's pretty much just storage for canned answers, and my testing community. But I know you're not going to take anything, so if you want to see it you can.

(And you can friend cuddled, you know. I won't bite you if you do. In fact, I'll friend you back. :) )

[pne.livejournal.com]

[cassiaopeia] if you like, I'll add you

I'd like that.

you can friend cuddled, you know. I won't bite you if you do. In fact, I'll friend you back. :)

Done. Have a look at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pne/2000/01/01/ (http://www.livejournal.com/users/pne/2000/01/01/) if you want. Tell me if you vote in the poll, please, by commenting here or there.

[damned-colonial.livejournal.com]

Re the pathways... wasn't that one of Christopher Alexander's stories?

Christopher Alexander

[pne.livejournal.com]

I don't know.

Who is/was Christopher Alexander?

Re: Christopher Alexander

[damned-colonial.livejournal.com]

Author of "A Timeless Way of Building" and "A Pattern Language" ... he does for architecture what design patterns and refactoring and stuff do for software. In fact the "patterns" idea in design patterns originated with Alexander's work. Do a search on Amazon to read reviews of his stuff.

[gabrielascrib.livejournal.com]

nice! what university is this? who was the architect?

[pne.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I read this story quite a while ago and don't remember the details. Sorry.

[diesari.livejournal.com]

ich werde dich mal zu meiner friends list hinzufügen .. wurdest mir nämlich von n_true empfohlen ;)
ciao .. bis denne :))

[pne.livejournal.com]

Willkommen :)

Bitte sei nicht beleidigt, wenn ich dich nicht zurückadde. Aber das meiste, was ich schreibe, ist für alle lesbar.

[linnapaw.livejournal.com]

*grin* This is why we called the dirt trails at my university "voting for sidewalks". :)