PAVEMENT
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My aim was to look at my personal daily routes with an unbiased , fresh look . Daily routes have become habitual and familiar due to repetition . Therefore people may become blind when coming to the question of details and characteristic of their paths ’ surroundings . I tried to judge these well-known routes and their details from a new perspective . Since I know these routes in Budapest almost by heart , I tried to turn off and change my paths slightly , in order to realize their attributes . I changed my daily routes so that the starting point and the destination would not have not changed , but by taking the tram or bus for one stop longer than would be necessary , choosing different modes of transportation , or walking on a street parallel to the one I usually use – these were my main strategies .
The prominent elements I noticed along the routes were the pavement ’ s surfaces . The ground of the city shows various types of pavement on which people usually walk over without noticing . In many cases the pavement ’ s pattern , color , material or style certainly affects the way people play and behave in the streets . This influential effect of the pavement could still take hold without a conscious understanding of it , or without the concentrated thoughtfulness of the pedestrians .
Its surfaces possess information , or content related to the environ ’ s history – for example a cobbled street could refer to a neglected , poorer district , or a marble paving to a developing area .
On the other hand the details of a pavement could warn or call upon its travelers , determining how to move or behave . As an example , the shape and color of a tram station ’ s paved stone sidewalk suggests to pedestrians that there is a risk of moving vehicles , or shows where its doors are located . Translating these signals into commands , ring out as the following sentences : “ Stand here !” “ Do not cross the way now !” “ The doors of the tram will be there .”
Marc Augé calls the places of transport and everyday routine ‘ non-places ’, and he states the following regarding the people acting in these places : ‘ All the remarks that emanate from our roads and commercial centres , from the streetcorner sites of the vanguard of the baking system (‘ Thank you for your custom ’, ‘ Bon voyage ’, ‘ We apologize for any inconvenience ’) are addressed simultaneously and indiscriminately to each and any of us : they fabricate the ‘ average man ’, defined as the user of the road , retail or baking system .’ ₂