From the course: Universal Principles of Design

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Desire Lines

Desire Lines

From the course: Universal Principles of Design

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Desire Lines

- Hi. I'm William Lidwell and this is Universal Principles of Design. In this movie, Desire Lines: Exploring the road most traveled. There is a famous, though probably apocryphal story about an architect who, after completing a new building on a college campus decided to leave the courtyard and other grassy areas around the building without sidewalks. The idea was to let students and faculty use the building for a year and let their use form trails in the grass. Then lay the sidewalks on top of those paths. This story may be apocryphal, but it sure is smart apocryphal. It's smart because it illustrates a way to find out how people in aggregate actually use something. In this case a landscape which can then be used as a blueprint for design. It's like a statistical use graph drawn on to nature. It's beautiful. Now consider the all too common alternative. How many times have you seen trails in the grass that break off of a paved walkway? You know, trails like this. Or this. Or this. In…

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