PERSONAL ESSAY

When first seeing the word modernity, I wasn’t sure of what it meant. I had no idea that this word had such a strong presence in the design world and how important it is pushing forward in common themes that underline design. Connecting non-places to the garage after reading this novel definitely gave me a better sense of what it truly means to turn a place that serves the sole and desolate purpose of parking huge pieces of metal. Reconstructing the garage is so important because it can serve multiple different purposes which can bring a sense of excitement, newness to the university atmosphere.  

The union garage is currently just a place, which needs to be designed to become a place. This can be manifested through providing some type of destination beyond the predicted location of somewhere to place your car. Understanding the difference between place and non-places is crucial when something like life is at risk. The union is cold and bleak, which makes it a central location for suicide attempts, negative thoughts, and energy. Changing the top of the garage to even something as simple as having a projector and movies being able to play could attract a great amount of buzz to the location and give it a feeling of the positive destination. The location now is negative and is used as a final point of contact before someone attempts or takes their life.  

This quote encompasses the mission that we are trying to do as a studio in a brief way, 

“The space could be to the place what the word becomes when it is spoken: grasped in the ambiguity of being accomplished, changed into a term stemming from multiple conventions, uttered as the act of one present (or one time), and modified by the transformations resulting from successive influences …. (Augé 173). Our job as designers can manifest itself in different ways because we can completely change the entire narrative of a space depending on how we advertise the location, fill the space with few or many items and the types of things we build to insert inside of the space. We are currently at a great place I believe with trying to develop a concept that could really impact the culture of the university and the usefulness of the garage. I believe that even taking the overall theme of the garage and transforming portions of it into the exhibition will further enhance both of their purposes.  

I think the important thing we have to keep in mind as a class is that we are trying to turn this garage into something that people look forward to and there is a journey that leads them to a positive destination. Even if somebody were to think to use the garage as their final destination, having to interact or observe the positive things we designed to reach the highest level of the garage and be greeted by other people eating ice cream or watching movies can really shift someone’s drastic thoughts.