City Within A City
As I was preparing to present my thesis on how we design the experience of travel, and the idea I had coined “non-travel,” a fellow MA Design Researcher asked me whether I was advocating for *not* travelling. They, quite rightly, pointed out that while I had spent the previous nine months dissecting and critiquing the design of objects that allow us to travel without moving, none of these required us to have any interaction with the physical world around us. I was stunned. But, but, but, *no.*
I love travelling. But, even more, I love experiencing new places, trying new foods, and learning about the roots of a place by chatting with the locals. I still remember (during my first degree, in London, many years ago) my history of architecture professor reminding me to “look up as well as down” as we did our assignments. To engage with this vibrantly rich city while we ran our errands. To be curious about what we see. The past isn’t just below us, and if we only look down we miss out on so much of what the world has to offer us.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but by looking with new eyes.”
Failing to explore and interact with the world around us is not what I want to do, and it’s definitely not what I want to encourage others to do. I strongly believe that travelling, that taking a step outside of our everyday lives and being confronted with a new language, new people, and a new way of doing things, is one of life’s best lessons. What’s more, if every individual had the opportunity and the encouragement to get a first-hand taste of a new culture and new ideas every year I believe we would live in a far less insular and less hateful world.
So, even though the non-traveller has its roots in the theoretical world of design research and criticism, what has energised me to share the idea of non-travel every day since is the hope of encouraging others to explore where they live with fresh eyes. To help them learn about the history, the people and the traditions from other cultures that make up the towns and cities they call home.
“Non-travel, for me, is about encouraging an experience of place. About a curiosity in the world around us, and hence in the stories these places share. About learning. Discovering something new about the place we live, and in the process learning about far-off places and people.”
I asked myself: how can you non-travel within a city? We are incredibly lucky that there are so many ways today to connect with communities around the world. The news tells us what is happening on every continent; travellers share their experiences before they’ve even returned home; and travel companies have a wealth of media at their fingertips to create evermore powerful advertising. But I’m worried that these experiences are missing the interaction, the tactile nature of travel - both positive and negative - the beautiful and the gritty. So, I asked myself again: what are the places, the physical spaces and activities, that can transport us to another city in an instant?
While the armchair traveller only had the literature he read as a way to discover the culture of other countries, cities like New York (where this adventure started) are full of rich in the culture, sig in New York while I was finishing my thesis, and when asked about it, I would pose the question: how can we walk the streets of Paris without leaving Manhattan? And answering: by visiting the Eiffel Tower, a Parisian bookshop, a wine bar worthy of the Left Bank, and even a trip to Versailles. I can show you where.
Now that I live in San Francisco, I have continued to challenge myself to find these ‘destinations’ closer to home. #100CitiesInSF is where I’m collecting these trips. If you’re based in the Bay Area, but even if you’re not, come and join me on my non-travels. Let’s visit (insert you’re dream city here).