Trampling Tradition: How Elephant Paths Are Secretly Co-designing Your Neighbourhood....

By Aba Amihyia, MBCS

Ever wondered why so many of us always cut across that grassy patch instead of using the pavement? It turns out, elephants have the answer…

Elephant Paths, Cow Paths or even Beast Trails (to those who aren’t so keen on elephants or cows) - these terms refer to the desired lines or informal trails that people create in public spaces through their everyday movements, often diverging from the paved walkways provided by urban planners.

Before I stepped into the world of Social Infrastructure and Co-Design, I always felt like a rebel when I opted for the ?‘road-more-travelled’,?down the ‘Social Path’ that had formed, ignoring the perfectly paved concrete?strip intended for me. This ‘social path’ was a reflection of a community’s free will & common sense,?a less-than-subtle nod to the planners?suggesting that?a better understanding of the pedestrians and community they are designing for could have been beneficial.

Taking pride in navigating my way across a public space in a manner that suited me - I asked myself?“Why should I take the long way around?”?My act of rebellion wasn’t random or unique, inspecting the imperfect & patchy trail ahead, I noted that countless people before me have taken this path too, making me think deeper into the design or lack of Co-design within public spaces and housing developments - why aren’t residents/communities, their behaviours and requirements?taken into consideration?when an area is being developed?

Like a herd of elephants, we gravitate towards the simplest and quickest way to get from Point A to B.? A?well-known example?of when ‘Elephant Paths’ have been embraced into design is the 1st Disney World theme park. Disney didn’t have any paved paths?when it first opened, unwittingly the visitors designed an integral part of the theme park as Walt let them roam around freely. Those paths were later paved and the public’s contribution was cemented into history.

An extreme example of an Elephant Path is the story of Dashrath Manjhi?- affectionately known as?‘The man who moved a mountain’ or? ‘Mountain Man of India’?who, over 22 years carved a road through a mountain?to shorten the distance from his village to the nearest hospital from 70km to 1km - all in the name of love.

So what do these Social Paths tell us about our environment and its design? They serve as a testament to the instinctive human desire for convenience and efficiency and offer valuable insights into how people interact with their surroundings - one could see it as unsolicited, non-verbal feedback for planners and developers....

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