arevik petrosyan – Environment-urban form-infrastructure

A3 – Arevik Petrosyan

While walking on the beach, I couldn’t help but notice I was becoming exhausted very quickly. It is more difficult to keep stability on deep sand than it is on solid ground, and requires more energy as well. You have to lift your foot vertically out of the sand as well which requires knee bending that many people may not be capable of doing comfortably or without pain.

Farther from the beach, on the sidewalk adjacent to the road, I saw someone using a walking cane and realized that it must be pretty difficult to use a cane on a sandy beach. The lack of a solid surface to plant the cane on for stability seems like it would clearly pose some issues. It is unfortunate that there aren’t many solid walking paths within the sandy area. However, I think it might be possible to adapt the traditional walking cane to be better built for sandy terrain.

The issue might be addressed by creating a larger surface area that would come in contact with the ground. I modeled the new cane after ski poles – for deep powder you typically want to use a similar style basket a the tips of your ski poles, the increased surface area helps with stability so your poles can compact the snow instead of sinking.

A2 – Arevik Petrosyan

My analysis focuses on cellular network connection on site.

A1 – Arevik Petrosyan

I looked at an intersection that is located adjacent to an elementary school near the house I grew up in. The neighborhood, like many in Calgary, is not very walkable. On weekdays before school, and after students are dismissed, there is a lot of congestion on this specific intersection and it doesn’t seem like the safest situation to have kids running around in every day.

Excluding the highway, the map below shows the approximate area that can be reached within a 15 minute walk of that intersection, which includes four schools located on the perimeter of a loop created by the two larger roads in the neighborhood. This area includes a handful of bus stops, a gas station, a church, and a lot of single family homes. During the morning school rush the two main roads become incredibly congested and it is nearly impossible to leave this area.

This is a mental map of Calgary and its surroundings. Anything directly adjacent to the train tracks can be reached by the LRT line I live near. I grew up in the “Deep Suburbs” in the South West, and don’t really drive on my own, so my knowledge of what exists in this city is limited to what can be reached by transit in an hour (1h 30 max). As a primarily transit commuter, more than half of this city is entirely unfamiliar to me despite living here for my entire life.