It's Mac's manic musings
Do you get lost on the Newtown campus? Believe it or not, that's all part of one man's plan.
JOHN MACDONALD
Issue date: 2/23/10 Section: Campus News
Fellow Students:
Have you ever been hopelessly
lost on the Newtown
Campus, feeling like a rat
trapped in a maze? Did you
think that the campus was
designed by a madman, a
sadist, an incompetent, or all
three combined? My recent
interview with the designer of
the campus, Sir Cumnavey
Gashun, reveals that getting
lost is all part of a grand
scheme:
Mac: Sir, what was the
thought process behind your
design of the Newtown
Campus?
Gashun: I wanted to create a
new kind of educational facility,
one that organically incorporated
and enhanced the purposes
of a college education.
A recent survey revealed
that the number one question
asked at Newtown was, "do
you know how to get to
_________ from here?" The
most usual response to this
question was, "I don't know.
Do you have any idea where
we are now?"
That's great news. It confirms
that the design achieves
its purposes. Achieves its purposes...? At
any given time there are scores
of students wandering around
campus without the faintest
idea of where they are or how
to get to where they are going.
Getting people hopelessly lost
is the only thing that your
design seems to have achieved.
It seems almost intentional.
It is. If that was my only purpose,
I agree that it would be
pretty damn weird. Ask yourself,
"what are some of the purposes
of higher education?"
Do they not include challenging
the mind? Stimulation of
and integration of right- and
left-brain?
Well, ...aah, ... I
guess.....That was a rhetorical
question. My design purposefully
incorporates elements of
the labyrinth and the maze.
Um, aren't they the same
thing?
Certainly not. A labyrinth
takes you on a circuitous path
that has only one way in and
one way out, stimulating the
right-brain functions of
imagery, creativity and intuition.
Amaze is like a puzzle to
with lots of twists, turns and
Have you ever been hopelessly
lost on the Newtown
Campus, feeling like a rat
trapped in a maze? Did you
think that the campus was
designed by a madman, a
sadist, an incompetent, or all
three combined? My recent
interview with the designer of
the campus, Sir Cumnavey
Gashun, reveals that getting
lost is all part of a grand
scheme:
Mac: Sir, what was the
thought process behind your
design of the Newtown
Campus?
Gashun: I wanted to create a
new kind of educational facility,
one that organically incorporated
and enhanced the purposes
of a college education.
A recent survey revealed
that the number one question
asked at Newtown was, "do
you know how to get to
_________ from here?" The
most usual response to this
question was, "I don't know.
Do you have any idea where
we are now?"
That's great news. It confirms
that the design achieves
its purposes. Achieves its purposes...? At
any given time there are scores
of students wandering around
campus without the faintest
idea of where they are or how
to get to where they are going.
Getting people hopelessly lost
is the only thing that your
design seems to have achieved.
It seems almost intentional.
It is. If that was my only purpose,
I agree that it would be
pretty damn weird. Ask yourself,
"what are some of the purposes
of higher education?"
Do they not include challenging
the mind? Stimulation of
and integration of right- and
left-brain?
Well, ...aah, ... I
guess.....That was a rhetorical
question. My design purposefully
incorporates elements of
the labyrinth and the maze.
Um, aren't they the same
thing?
Certainly not. A labyrinth
takes you on a circuitous path
that has only one way in and
one way out, stimulating the
right-brain functions of
imagery, creativity and intuition.
Amaze is like a puzzle to
with lots of twists, turns and
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