Walking the Line

My curriculum includes this class called Environmental Experience. It could be the most boring class ever because there's a lot of lecturing, or, it could be the best class ever because it makes you think and look at design in a different way.
I choose the latter.
The class is basically about the experience that people have in a built environment. Pretty self explanatory right?? But not many people actually consider that. Some people design a space and expect people to figure out how to exist in it rather than observe and understand people, then design a space for them. 
Our assignment was to walk and observe a few public spaces in New York and observe how people interact with them, the emotions exhibited, the activities going on, and the principles and elements of design applied in the space. I happened to be near the Highline this morning, and I decided to take a stroll and have some breakfast :)

~ Lisa Lou

Bad House Guests

 Today a report was released listing the 100 most endangered animals and plants in the world. Most of the list has creatures and fauna no one's ever heard of or seen and that's probably why they've been dying off for a while and no one took much notice. The fact is, in this world humans are the most selfish of all the creatures. I mean, they are the only animals to hunt for....fun. Not many of us stop to consider how what we do affects the animals and environments around us because we're all living for the fulfillment of right now. 

The competition between the super powers of the world has them reluctant to change because no one wants to fall behind in economic and technological growth. So, everyone's pushing forward with destruction, construction, pollution and contamination and as a  result, the original inhabitants of the earth, are being displaced, forced to adapt to the new environments we push them into and when they can't survive it, they die. 

Japanese River Otter- Declared Extinct 14 days ago

It seems like humans are the only ones with rights; if an animal doesn't benefit us in any way, then it's existence is irrelevant. The truth is, the animals were on this rock first. It's their home and humans are the bad house guests that keep messing it up.

The African Quagga - Declared Extinct 1883

~ Lisa Lou