PERSONAL ESSAY

I have a better understanding of what non-places truly means after connecting this book to the parking garage project. Many individuals spend most of their time in non-places every day in their life. Non-places may not be meaningful or memorable to some individuals since they do not spend enough time. Many of us are too busy to even stop or notice what is around us when being around these types of environments. 

The non-places I am referring to are parking garages, airports, highways, elevators, etc. These places are never fully designed or finished as stated by Marc Auge. People typically do not feel connected to these types of places as much as they connect to places like home, school, or work. Adding some type of interactive element, music, or design to unfinished nonplaces like a parking garage will allow people to stop in a movement and to be aware of their surroundings. Making changes to the garage will not only excite the people who use it daily, but it will show a culture of care. Parking garages are considered non-places, but after adding interesting cool design elements, it will turn into a place you want it to be. In this class, I have learned that adding simple little things like music to the garage can make the garage so fun.  

At the beginning of the semester, I was little confused about the course on how we could help with suicide prevention through design, but now it all makes sense to me after having the workshop and making the prototypes. I lost interest in this course at the beginning of the semester until I found out my cousin committed suicide; therefore, I feel more connected to this course more now than I did before. I was ready to drop this class, but I decided not to because I wanted to learn how design can help change the look of a dark and depressive garage.