The opportunity of Marion’s Ledge isn’t just in the big things we can do, but also the plethora of beautiful small things we can do – things that let us practice new ways, sometimes forgotten ways (and hopefully better ways) to do things and simultaneously experience new activities thru which to engage with each other.
A model example came up recently when I was telling someone about the intention to include Laundromat machines for the use of the Hostel guests as well as any visiting local guests (an integrated mini-laudramat). In playing off this idea they made the simple suggestion to put a clothesline on the roof.
I remember helping my mother with the cloths on the line when I was a kid but now we’ve gotten very used to using electrical dryers instead. The truth is that a good part of the year in Houston is perfectly suitable to letting the sun do our drying and the roof of Marion’s would be an ideal place to set that up.
Not only might the roof host a clothslinehile but, rather than in some conventional configuration, the design of the line itself might be a creative project and impleminted as an “art installation”—an art installation that, like some of the most engaging ones I’ve seen, is usable and that you interact with (of course!).
Today I can’t even imagine what form that might finally take (I will be delighted, though I won’t be surprised, when one of the creative minds we tap will indeed come up with something wonderful!) but, as in this example, there may be no area in the design of Marion’s Ledge that art and creativity – playfullness, thinking from a new perspective outside-the-box – may not be applied.
This will not only bring creative energy to what-we-offer, but creative and playful energy to how-we-offer it so that it becomes even more in the process. In the future I look forward to noting other examples of this “plethora of beautiful small things” that we can do in a fresh way.
