ABOUT + PARSONS THESIS + DESIGNS + VIDEOS + PHOTOS
The Small Experiment – Smoke Free Zone
For proving my premise before I start thesis project, I need to get the result how the small thing influences to us in our life, and changes the pattern of people at the public space. Therefore, I had been investigate what kind of social issues we have, and tried to solve the problem with a small thing. I was thinking what kind of a small thing could bring a huge result, and I realized that it is going be better to create it, not find it. So, I decided to design a small thing, and also if possible, I wanted to contribute to the society with it. There is one law that everyone knows, but many people do not observe the law. It is the Smoke Free Zone.
We know the law that there is a smoke free zone in 20 feet from the entrance of each building in New York City. However, many smokers are not following this law. There might be two possible reasons to explain; one is that smokers might not be well informed about the smoke free zone and the other possible reason is that they just ignore it because it's not restricted strictly. Therefore, I changed the environment with a small thing, drawing a single line with a radius of 20 feet in front of the entrance of this building, and writing “Smoke Free Zone” on the street using water-soluble chalk. The purpose of this project is to let people know that it's the law that you can't smoke in a 20 feet from the entrance, and we need to respect each other between non-smokers and smokers at the public space.
I hope this simple half circle line makes all people to be satisfied. Non-smokers can be free from the cigarette smoke, and smokers don't have to try to read other people's mind during smoking at the public space. Finally, we can see that actually people follow the rule. Not all of them, but many people followed this rule. The reason that everyone can see the line and sign where the smoke free zone is, and they might feel guilty when they smoke in there.
