Cow Paths
This week during lecture, we briefly discussed Christopher Alexander and his work studying user patterns. It immediately made me think of desire lines, or as I call them, cow paths. These are unpaved paths that are created by repetitive use, typically seen in grass. Cow paths are physical evidence of how a space is used and, if studied over time, can show where a paved path should be added. An example of this could be the hill right beside Lee Hall. Even before the recent road construction, that hill always had cow paths across it because it is a quicker walk that way than going around to the employee parking lot. I think the hill being more steep now has deterred some people from cutting across as much, but there are still very evident cow paths, even though it has only been accessible for a semester. I think this is a great example of how while we might intend for a space to be used in a specific way, we will never truly know how a space is used until after it has been constructed and inhabited.
June 2019 vs February 2024
Kayla, this is a great connection of user patterns to our everyday life! I have also noticed that students typically "forge their own paths" throughout various spots on campus, and it is interesting to see how these paths differ from where urban planners designed walkways.
ReplyDeleteExactly. We can always assume what the path may be and try our best to determine the path but in the end, we will not know until it's constructed. So many missed opportunities for the stairs going from the lower lot to the main road and the main road to Lee.
ReplyDelete"Cow Paths" are something that I notice all the time on campus and find myself wishing we had paved paths from the parking lot the shortest distance to Lee or other buildings. This would be interesting to look at as a post-occupancy study. We as designers can try to apply a user based logic to create paths through a site but that doesn't mean that it's the path that students or faculty will take.
ReplyDeleteEver since I learned about desire paths in my undergrad, I have always tried to take into account that even if I design a site plan with these paths in mind, people are still going to create desire paths. We can try to account for them in design but it's hard to know if people will use the paths we design or still choose to create their own.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic name! I think the idea of cow paths can be expanded to all aspects of human behavior. We design spaces with all kinds of intention for their uses but we really never know how a space will be used until it actually is and often times users define the space totally differently than we expected.
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