November 14, 2015
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
04:56 PM
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Posted by: Jccarlton at Sat Nov 14 20:57:45 2015 (jqaLb)
The trendy mega-edifices that are built in place of these once thriving areas that are actually lived in tend to have a certain characteristic to them: There are no niches, no easily contained spaces, no natural microcosms within them where people can actually set something up.
One thing about all the trendiest buildings on campus that I find absolutely maddening is that there is nowhere you can go to get privacy, or to get away from other people. It is all, 100%, 270 degree public space (and overcrowded on top of that). Set up a booth or a display? Forget about it. All you can do is pass through at high speed and try not to let it wear on you. Find a corner (as I used to be able to do in my undergrad university) in the periodical stack to set up and study all night? There’s nowhere like that here.
It almost seems of a piece with all the uber-trendy "open-plan office†designs. (I have an open desk in an open office that I never spend any time at, because I can’t *think* in that setting. (Nevermind the noise – I have no control over my space.) Better the corner of a cluttered bench in a lab, where my back is to a wall.)
In Calhoun’s rat overcrowding experiments, the rats that stayed sane the longest were the ones that took over and controlled the niches. The ones that had space that was *theirs*. The others had to scramble for spots in poorly defensible public open areas.
Posted by: MadRocketSci at Sun Nov 15 14:35:34 2015 (GtPd7)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Nov 15 16:03:29 2015 (5oCPR)
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