Everyday I'm Hustlin

At the ripe old age of ??, my life has been filled with experiences of the "Everyday", many "Everyday's" actually. Never really noticing the monotony of my class schedule(undergrad), work schedule(post grad), and class schedule again(grad school), I meandered through my life and the built environment with and acute sense and a certain appreciation for the in-between, spur of the moment, and the spontaneous. I've many times wandered through a space, whether inside or outside, and paused for a second to admire, study, and observe an instance in my daily and monotonous routine that is normally dictated by the element of time. The avoidance of such spaces occurs most often in  human "everyday" lives but why is this? Has modernity transformed us into products on an assembly line destined for box at the end of the conveyor belt, ready to be stamped with a SMILE and express shipped to address? Taking pride in my unique sense of observance, I notice when people are out of their "everyday" element unexpectedly. There is a distinct aura and attitude that a person displays when moving through everyday but when disrupted, the change, at least for me, is ever apparent.

In the instance of urbanism, cities have been designed or modeled in very similar plans that don't impede or obstruct the "Everyday". Cities are created in a way that tucks the opportunities of special recognition, ambient appreciation, or enlightened acknowledgements in the corners of the master plan so obscurely that they are only intentionally sought after. During the "Everyday Hustle" of most every being; the hustle to get to work on time, the hustle to pick up lunch before the crowd gets there, the hustle to get home for your favorite prime time tv show,(modernism in many aspects), tends to dictate the routes we take and the experiences we have with the city. 

As architecture and city planning has been prone to predetermine our "Everyday" experiences, I think that there is a real opportunity for the future of urbanism to embrace the notion of calamity, not whole heartedly, but in a way that breaks up the one track mindset that has been altered by technology. Urban experiences are best when lost, unaware of what spatial interaction you will have. These interactions snowball in the cerebellum that unconsciously break down all social barriers and distractions that allow the unexpected pleasantries, the usually avoid conversation, or social commodities that we all once appreciated. "Everyday" I Hustle, a bit less.

Comments

Popular Posts