Blog 1

The space I’ve chosen to spend time in is Davis Square. It’s an ideal place for site and people watching because it’s a successfully designed environment that attracts all walks of life. 

In a recent essay about Cockpit Design I briefly talked about the notion of choice in space. Spaces have many ways of provide choices for us such as the ability to sit in various locations, or the types of things we choose to sit (or stand) on such as benches, sills, stoops, or built up infrastructure (such as Subway vents and light shafts). Public spaces provide us ‘choice’ in the for of accessibility also. Some spaces invite or prohibit in the way that they feed into one another either physically or phenomenologically. 

Davis Square is a place that merits, or affords, these types of choices; in the form of accessibility and mutability. It has curb cuts at all major cross walks that are wide, well marked, and properly graded for anyone in a wheelchair or anyone limited to very short paces. Each of the intersections is also equipped with hearing devices that indicate when it is safe to pass so it not only provides excellent accessibility to the handicapped, but also the blind. There are many types of seating devices that universally popular. There are of course the typical metal benches that accommodate three comfortably, but also there are picnic type benches that allow for strangers to sit together or larger groups in seek of communal seating. Towards the rim of the plaza itself lies a long skylight to the subway that was deliberately built up to double as informal seating. This informality gives people a choice to express, perhaps, their own sense of informality which might explain why so many teenagers and homeless sit there (although not exclusively).  Towards the end of this burmed structure is a lowered portion (whose function is unclear to me). It’s perfectly scaled to children’s seating, and without surprise, is hugely popular with kids seeking to spring from it it, perch on it, sit on it, etc. 

The buildings themselves have a way of addressing our anthropometrics the way they jog in and out or they way in which they advertise themselves to us. Signage in Davis is very diverse, some rest low close to eye level while others hang high above the head making them clear to see at further distances. Some buildings have recesses along the facades that are just small enough for one person to stand in. They offer a type of prospect and refuge that allows one to nestle ‘inside’ of to get away from the wind, have a one way conversation on the phone, smoke a cigarette, or simply wait while someone else it expected to come. On the inverse scale, Davis offers larger spaces directly under the sky that promote social exhibition rituals in the form of music, dance, martial arts, etc. Because of the square triangulated physical nature, things convene in the center and radiate outwards, sound is no exception. If there is any music, it happens in the center. Its also where most of the talking happens. The cacophony of voices tends to quiet the further one moves from center.