By Jeremy @ shape-and-colour.com
Sometimes remembering is even sweeter than learning. I first read about Desire Paths in an endlessly fascinating book by French scientist, philosopher, and poet (not a three-way combo you come across every day) Gaston Bachelard. Dedicated to the study of the poetry and philosophy of science, Bachelard’s 1958 book “The Poetics of Space” looks not at the origins or technicalities of architecture, but how the lived-in and human experience of architecture affects and shapes it’s development.
One of these experiences creates a Desire Path -”a term in landscape architecture used to describe a path that isn’t designed but rather is worn casually away by people finding the shortest distance between two points”. Just as Bachelard examines, it shows how the human use of an architectural…read more.
Design Principles - Fall 2013 