design in disguise

The word “design” brings to mind forms, like objects such as chairs, children’s toys, pens, and cars, but it is the space that design can create which makes it especially unique. The inside of a building can have four ninety degree walls, but if in one room the ceiling is thirty feet high and the other is only ten, the element of space is powerful and will change the experience of the design.

Thinking about my first positive memory associated with design, I bypass the traditional objects such as the Barbie doll and remember a space that has a lasting impression on my idea of what design is. 

My side porch in the house I grew up in created an interesting pathway. Because my house sits on a hill, the ground beneath the porch is slanted, leaving enough space for an adventurous child to crawl on hands and knees and explore the unknown. The experience of the space makes a lasting memory because it was very much unlike the top of the porch, the intended pathway. Beneath was dirty, narrow, full of bugs, and left enough cobwebs in my hair to decorate the house for Halloween. 

Combining the sense of rebelling against clean clothes and tknowing that no parents would or could manage to go down there, made it isolated and and my own secret garden away from chores, rules, and authority. 

 While this, I'm sure, wasn't an intended design element, it was present none the less. 

Design often has that effect, the unintended effect. If the designer of the porch had added extra support beams running perpendicular to the long passageway, it would be a different design, create a different space, and would have disallowed me to experience the space beneath my porch. Thinking about this possibility, it reminds me not to see the obvious functional effects that design is created for, but to think and explore the possibilities of the ways in which a desing, especially through space, can create unpredictable experiences.