It’s been raining a lot in Los Angeles these past few months, and as residents of a city known for its sunshine, beaches, and tanning, we have not been prepared. Couple lack of preparedness with the USC college-student lifestyle (frugality, improvisation, ~chill~), and you have trash bags substituting for umbrellas, and “water-proof” Converse for rain boots. A few weeks ago, one of my classmates was dressed in only a sweater and shorts (preparedness, right?) when rain began pounding outside. A kind member of the facilities management team saw her fearful look out the window, and offered to give her a trash bag for protection. He ripped a hole through the top, helped her nestle her head through, and off she went. I was both endeared and impressed by his creative act of kindness. 🙂 

I was recently in Miami and fell for the city’s breezy, cosmopolitan, and reggaeton-infused culture. There was a generally relaxed and fun spirit permeating throughout the city, encapsulated by this sighting I made outside a small takeaway pizzeria. While stepping inside to pick up his food, the biker left his lit cigarette propped inside his cellphone case, fumes of smoke twirling into the air. Unable to take his cigarette inside—and unwilling to prematurely put it out—the biker resourcefully designed a way to keep it upright. When he came back out, he swiftly pulled the cigarette from its makeshift stand, took a puff, hopped on his bike, and sped off. Only in Miami.  

I saw this couple living their best life on a sunny London Sunday in early June. Lounging on striped picnic chairs, reading the newspaper, and even resting their feet on pillows, the couple fulfilled every requirement for a plush and relaxing weekend morning. Despite their shady spot under Regent’s Park’s lofty trees, it seemed that the lady still got too warm, and decided to take off her jacket, hanging it on a branch above her. She had resourcefully created a coat-rack out of her surrounding environment.  

I walked past amused by the lady’s jacket-hanging-from-a-branch, but also inspired by the couple’s effortlessly relaxed appearance and attitude. 

Back in early July in London, I saw these two brothers walking with their father after school. They’d gone to the grocery store, and the dad held a package of cherry tomatoes while the younger boy held pocky sticks and another candy. The older brother seemed too busy spraying his younger brother with water to help carry the groceries, until I looked more closely at his backpack. In the pocket usually meant for his water bottle, he’d slipped a long English cucumber. By putting the cucumber in his backpack, he made sure his hands were unobstructed and free to spray his younger brother with as much water as he could. Creatively, he’d found a way to maximize his advantage in a brotherly competition, while still contributing to grocery transportation. 

My uncle took this photograph when he visited my family in London over the summer. Before I first visited London, I assumed that pubs were a fictional stereotype people associated with the city, but not a true aspect of its culture. I was wrong. During the summer, when the nights are warm, people spew out of pubs onto the sidewalks, beers and gin & tonics in hand. They will stay at the pub for hours, drinking and talking until the light goes down around 9pm. 

Often, you don’t want to hold your glass the whole time you are standing around. So, people place them on building ledges, and an architectural flourish comes to serve a very utilitarian purpose. I love how my uncle captured this scene, with the men’s beers wedged between their talking figures. 

How I wish I could revel in a long, London summer night right about now…

I saw this on campus and laughed out loud, because it’s a perfect follow-up to my previous post about seating in public places. In that post, I wrote about how people use objects around them–such as curbs, statues, or steps–as seats, even though seating is not their intended use. Humans improvise in order to fulfill their basic needs.

This picture shows opposition to that natural human inclination; clearly, whoever works in that office was getting tired of students using their windowsill as a place to rest. I don’t blame them, though. Opening your shades to the sight of someone’s bum is not necessarily the best way to start the workday.

The stairway of my apartment building only opens from the outside, with the exception of the ground floor. So, if you enter, you’re locked in until you reach the very bottom. Not only does this make taking the stairs somewhat frightening (you’re basically trapped in!), it’s also inconvenient because you can’t use the stairs to move between floors.

Today, I saw the door to the fourth floor propped open…by chapstick. Who would’ve thought such a tiny, light item could resist the weight of a such heavy door?

Case in point: when they need to be, people are amazingly resourceful. Forget a doorstop; next time, just swipe your chapstick from your back pocket. It made me think: what else could chapstick be used for?

One of the best parts about London is that most of its museums are free. Outside the V&A one afternoon, I noticed people sitting on a ledge leading to the museum entrance. Some talked on their phones, others ate lunch, and others merely relaxed.

Seeing this made me think about all the times I’ve sat on objects whose intended function was not seating. I started spotting examples all around me in London:

These pictures say a lot about how people interact with their environments and fulfill their basic needs–like having a place to sit–despite constraints. It’s also something to keep in mind when designing urban environments or new public spaces.

I saw this man outside the Kenwood House, on one of the hottest days of the summer in London. In need of a refreshment, he alternated between sips of cool beer and licks of salted caramel ice cream. After a few minutes, I saw him place his ice cream cone in the spout of his beer bottle. He had ingeniously, and resourcefully, designed a solution to a problem many ice cream enthusiasts know well: where do you put your ice cream cone if you need to use your hands for something else, or simply want a break from your sweet treat? How do you prevent your ice cream from turning into a dripping, puddly mess?

I left the Kenwood House amused by this man’s creation, but also, as an ice cream lover myself, inspired by the mechanism he’d designed to keep his ice cream cone upright.