Seating in public places and transport

Does anyone think that seating in public environments could be designed better. I was thinking that perhaps there are a few issues with some of the common trends in this area. I have been travelling a lot recently, waiting in public spaces like airports and stations and using a lot of busses and trains and so on. The thing I have been noticing is that people often do not sit optimally for the best health of the crowd, that is to say, people often sit to to isolate them selves using a certain method, i.e. not sitting next to people if possible. There are of course other factors that are seen in some of the mentioned areas, like the availability of power, the fact that groups often move together, and the fact that some of the noted environments involve distinct changes in use statistics. 

Sooo. I thought about a few of these things and though a way to make busses or train a little nicer would be to make less wall oriented seating and more floating seating that would still let people walk around and would let people either be close to or less close to people around them depending on their acquaintance with each other and without taking up too much extra space. 

Also, I thought a little bit about steps to socially engineer people sitting in airport gates and other such places to make sure they would use the available chairs optimally, or at least in the sense that clusters and isolated individuals could exit without wasting seats or making either group less happy. 

I will try to put some sketchup models together to show what I am thinking about. Any other ideas?

Fixing Computers, Playing Games, Singing Songs

First, it looks like I have a place in Korea. But I am still interested in ideas in this regard. 

Next, I repaired my computer on my kitchen table here in Paris with a bunch of really inadiquate tools. It is really nice to have my main machine back up and running. 

My computer when open

Last, travel is good. I have met a few interesting people recently. Some in Sligo at IT Sligo where there is some possibility I will do some further study. They were rather nice and so on and Sligo seems like an interesting though remote and small place. Additionally I met an interesting girl on the Chunnle coming back from London to Paris. She was an RMIT Architecture student who is now doing lots of other stuff including a few greats, Zaha Hadid and Tom Barker. As most people will know I think architecture is really silly but after talking to this girl for a wile, someone who likes Zaha's work none the less, I realized a few things:

1. Architects can be nice though there is no question that they are silly.
2. Without knowing what you do it is hard to do it. I think I specialise in trying to do things that are not identifiable and spending time making it impossible to really understand what I do. Though this has some value I think I really need to make a decision and try to work at something specific, even if it is still abstract in its specificity.
3. Usually the truth ends up being good. I think designers and normal people should realise this more and use it in a few ways. Nice innovation is good design, true and honest design that works because it has been done well. Not changes that are made to take advantage of a relationship with end users that offers subtle advantages, truth is a lot nicer.

OK I need to stop being silly and get ready to do something interesting today.

The hotel in Sligo which happens to be an old mental institute. Bat shaped architecture at its best.

Paris and a few big problems

So I am in Paris.  It is pretty nice. Travel images are here. More will go on now and then but my main computer is broken now so I am not doing that so much.

I was thinking recently about the worlds problems and a conversation triggered the idea of thinking about what one would do if they were in control of the world. So I know that is a bit vague, but what would you do first if you had world power? Put answers in the comments!

I think I would put in motion systems to normalize the global economy and try to rebuild culture in culturally sparse reigns. I think I would also be interested in reducing the influence of politics in an attempt to reduce the political battels at all elvels of society that plague our systems with corruption and a lack of flexibility. 

Just one more thing. I am going to Korea in about 2 weeks and I really need a place to stay. Does anyone know some place  I could crash for free or cheap from 1st to 11th of July in Seoul. Please please tell me if you know some place.

Also, I should just say, I am not doing a lot of reading while traveling so sorry for not reblogging as much.