Take a look around. The roads, houses, paths and apartments that we see and utilize every single day were all made and designed by people with a lot of education. Being an architect is not easy, after all. But sometimes no amount of research or education can prepare someone for what humans will actually choose to do.
The “Desire Path” online group is dedicated to those hilarious and wholesome examples of humans and animals actually making their own shortcuts. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and share your thoughts and personal examples in the comments section below.
1: Strongest Desire Path I’ve Ever Seen
A desire path, for those who are wondering, is an “organic,” human or animal-made trail. In short, when we, for example, take a walk in the woods, we tend to try to take the shortest route between location A and location B.
Naturally, there will always be obstacles, trees, branches, roots and rocks. So we will weave around them. Over time, frequenters of any path will discover, almost instinctively, the most efficient route from A to B. They will begin to frequent this path until the grass and other vegetation is worn out and it’s visible to the naked eye.
2: The Desire Path Got Paved Out And Shifted Half A Meter To The Left
I remember the original desire path, the city decited to add a sort of pavement but the distance of the stones from each other makes it extremely uncomfortable to walk on, nevermind if you have a stroller or something. It got sorted rather quickly, people just dont use the pavement.
You can see similar examples of this at home. If you have a set of drawers, there will no doubt be at least one that you use more often. Depending on its age and materials, the handle might be more worn down. The important part of a desire path over a “regular” path is that it’s not planned. It is simply the culmination of months or even years of humans just walking.
3: A Very Belgian Solution In Antwerp
Indeed, it’s actually quite easy for us to accidentally make a desire path. This is why some national parks insist on folk’s staying on the designated trails, even if there is no risk from wildlife or other dangers. The Leave No Trace program is an example of this. Groups of humans walking repeatedly over something will wear it down, there are no two ways about it.
4: The Bricks Are A Pain In The Feet
The examples here are perhaps more extreme, as once, say, concrete is laid down, it’s unlikely that a city or property owner will tear it up just to accommodate some folks who are walking. However, recently, some cities have decided to, instead, incorporate desire paths into walking networks, as they organically reveal where humans actually want to go.
5: Tiny Path To Avoid The Bumps
This comes out of a more modern approach to urban design and architecture, where intuitive processes are part of anything that is being built. One 2006 study even suggested that businesses should do their utmost to incorporate desire lines into their properties, for example, the layout of a store or even the paths around a parking lot. After all, these are very clear indications of how humans, en masse, actually behave and businesses would be wise to pay attention. Some call this the wisdom of the crowd, where a variety of people, independently, make similar decisions. Naturally, humans are not actually dumb, we all tend to make rational choices with the options in front of us.
