Williams, Heather IAR Blog Post 12

Senegal, a city in West Africa represents good design because it is focused around the needs of the people who live there and communication instead of simply the way it looks. It is crowded, but this is so that everything is very close together so people can communicate with each other. They rely little on communication through media and electronics and instead have more face-to-face communication. The homes and neighborhoods are all very close to each other so that you can walk down the street to visit your neighbors. They are a more community driven society so they meet with their neighbors often instead of sitting at home talking through computers. Also, because this community is so open and close together, it is common for everyone to talk to everyone. There are less boundaries about who is acceptable to talk to. People here are already considered to be friends even if they have never met before. People will walk down the street and talk to anyone who is there and go visit people's houses without having to call first and this is not considered rude. To them this is friendly and keeps relationships among humans important. The layout of the city is practical bringing people together and encouraging socialization of people within the community. People are not left out and gather together regularly. They treat guests as family and serve food if someone is walking by and is hungry. I think this is an important way to look at design because instead of focusing on the aesthetics, it focuses on the needs of the people, socialization and relationships, and is designed around how to solve this issue and the importance to their culture being social and gathering with friends and family. It is more personalized and values humans instead of  simply material things. They focus on the root of the importance of their culture in their design.