37
Test 2
E
The same is true in transport engineering, w hich uses m odels to predict and shape the
way people move through the city. Again, these m odels are necessary, but they are built
on specific world views in w hich certain form s o f efficiency and safety are considered
and other experiences o f the city ignored. Designs that seem logical in m odels appear
counter-intuitive in the actual experience o f their users. The guard rails that w ill be fam iliar
to anyone who has attem pted to cross a British road, for example, were an engineering
solution to pedestrian safety based on models that prioritise the smooth flow o f traffic. On
wide m ajor roads, they often guide pedestrians to specific crossing points and slow down
their progress across the road by using staggered access points to divide the crossing into
two - one for each carriageway. In doing so they make crossings feel longer, introducing
psychological barriers greatly im pacting those that are the least mobile, and encouraging
others to m ake dangerous crossings to get around the guard rails. These barriers don’t
just m ake it harder to cross the road: they divide com m unities and decrease opportunities
for healthy transport. As a result, many are now being removed, causing disruption, cost,
and waste.
F
If their designers had had the tools to think w ith their bodies - like dancers - and imagine
how these barriers would feel, there m ight have been a better solution. In order to bring
about fundam ental changes to the ways we use our cities, engineering w ill need to develop
a richer understanding o f why people move in certain ways, and how this movem ent affects
them. Choreography may not seem an obvious choice for tackling this problem . Yet it shares
w ith engineering the aim o f designing patterns o f movem ent w ithin lim itations o f space.
It is an art form developed alm ost entirely by trying out ideas w ith the body, and gaining
instant feedback on how the results feel. Choreographers have deep understanding o f the
psychological, aesthetic, and physical im plications o f different ways o f moving.
G
O bserving the choreographer Wayne M cGregor, cognitive scientist David K irsh described
how he ‘thinks with the bod y ’. K irsh argues that by using the body to sim ulate outcomes,
M cG regor is able to imagine solutions that would not be possible using purely abstract
thought. This kind o f physical knowledge is valued in many areas o f expertise, but currently
has no place in formal engineering design processes. A suggested m ethod for transport
engineers is to improvise design solutions and get instant feedback about how they
would w ork from their own experience o f them, or m odel designs at full scale in the way
choreographers experiment w ith groups o f dancers. Above all, perhaps, they m ight learn to
design for em otional as well as functional effects.
38
Reading
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