From the editors
THE ART OF THE COMMUTE Words Alessandro Rognoni
In many ways, projects for urban transit deal with the act of commuting, one that is essential to urban life as we know it. Recognising, embracing and loving the commute might be the key to joy in the increasingly alienating metropolis; to do so, we may have to look back at times when such concerns were at the core of urban design.
Repetition is intrinsic to our times. As we spend our nights out, we dance to electronic music; we watch and rewatch sit-coms and Marvel films with the same plot; we scroll and scroll, and scroll again. In many aspects of our diverse lives, we find poetry in monotony. We taught ourselves how to swim in the convoluted sea of metropolitan stimuli, of the internet, of contemporary politics. With these things we are somehow familiar; often we are ignorant to them as well. Careless, but comfortable. But while many of our repetitive lifestyles are made by the activities that we choose to do, work is instead a ritual which is imposed on us. And as we think of our lives as stuck in our 9 to 5 loop, we rarely reflect on the 8:35 to 9:00, or the 5:00 to 5:30. The commute, and its bearing in our everyday, is overlooked.
commute and work anymore, will keep their head up, looking at the cityscape passing by, glancing at the details of other people’s clothes. The commute, however dull it may seem, is sacred. It’s where the repetitive quality of our cities resides, one that is fundamental to urban life. In its repetitiveness, it is also something we share, as we take part in the materiality of the city. Commutare, in Latin, means to change together (from com- ‘altogether’ + mutare ‘to change’. Changing from place to place, or changing underground lines, suggest a movement that is common, of common ownership, for everyone to enjoy, take part in, or watch in detachment. Lastly, one that is innate to the common citizen, who
“How long does it take you to go to work?” I have been frequently asked. I also question myself on this, very often, as I compulsively check the quickest route on Google. This mindset carries a danger with it, that the commute can be considered merely as an utilitarian act, a means to go-to, and arrive-backfrom. Then that will be it: everyone on the bus with an arm under their armpits, and the other holding their devices; a bad posture to hold for 45 minutes of your day. Just those over a certain age, who don’t Bob Noorda, Franco Albini and Franca Heig's design for the Metro 1 in Milan. (1957)
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