Philly Space

Fairmount Park

When I lived in Philly, I used to go running in Fairmount Park fairly often. It’s a very harmonic space because there’s different types of spaces along the way. By human nature, people tend to like ecotones. Ecotones are transitional spaces between two biological communities. I really liked running next to the Schuylkill River in the morning as it gave me energy to start my day. The environment changed my mindset and allowed me to experience Philly in a whole new way. Usually I was stuck in university buildings that don’t really value nature. 

Habits

I’ve been talking about habits in a negative light so far in the blogs because habits usually make us oblivious to our environments. However, habit formation can be really good for us as it makes us more functional as a byproduct of allowing our consciousness to have more freedom. When the unconscious takes over the rudimentary tasks, the consciousness can potentially have the option of focusing on tasks that are more difficult.

I remember noticing the complexity of Fairmount Park as my running pattern became habitual. There were days where I would automatically go to Fairmount Park to run, and then I would notice things that I usually would ignore. When something becomes a habit, one is able to notice the complexity of the environment. I’m intrigued by the adaptation of the consciousness because it’s really cool to know that we can always investigate and notice what’s in front of us even after looking at something hundreds of times. 

For example, I realized the intricacy of the bridges that were nearby the park. The patterns that structurally made the bridge strong became more apparent the more I looked at them. I also noticed the river sides and how at one point in time people probably bathed in the river. There are all sorts of history and ideas that come about when the same object is investigated with a different perspective. The cool thing about nature is the knowledge that it’s always changing.

If buildings are able to mimic this change, then the capacity for new experience is also exponential. I initially wanted to write a blog about my progress with the organic wissahickon model. But I don’t have any habitual ideas on how to create it yet. So exploring habits and the types of spaces in Philly has given me new knowledge about what can be a possibility. Maybe repetitive emulation is key in the beginning for creating a habit, similar to how I started running.