( please correct my mistakes, thank you so much )
-How the physical environment impacts you as a person at different times in your life and on daily basis and finally to your work.
-Describe the place, your emotional response to it and how it is influencing your thinking as designer/planner/human being
Environments in my current life
The moment I left home and came to Australia to further my studies I know I have to be more independent and firm in every aspect. The environment in Sydney is very different compared to where I came from which is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I was already expecting to experience the difference here and try to embrace the surroundings and be comfortable living here. Two years ago before starting my undergraduate life, safety was not sometime I had to worry about. Although I would not suggest Malaysia as a safe country but it also because of that, some fortunate ones such as myself need not worry about safety as my mum will send me to my destination spot because it is too dangerous to walk around and even to take public transports unlike Sydney, where people here enjoy walking and has become a habit to walk and take public transports.
As an international student living alone in a different country, living close to the university is the most convenient way and thus I have chosen to rent a unit not far away from the university, just a 20 minutes' walk to the university. This suburb has many restaurants, public places such as the park which is 10 minutes from my unit, and facilities such as the gym, library, and the pool in the university. The built environment is very accessible and convenient and I think it offers and encourages a very healthy lifestyle not only for individuals but also families. The facilities and physical environment provided here helps me to appreciate the outdoors more and learn that the designers for this suburb are trying to engage the people living at this area with the built environment through the various public spaces for the neighborhood to perform healthy, social activities.
However, there are certain parts of this suburb which lack considerations in terms of safety. The environment around my neighborhood does not seem to be too safe especially when the sun goes down. My mean of transport now is mostly walking when the weather is fine and during the day, I will take the shortest route which is of course the back alley to the university, that saves me about ten minutes and during the evening or at night, I will try to walk at the main streets where shops are located and it's brighter. Still, there is an unavoidable street I have to take to get home, the street is dark and quiet and does not have any street lights. It is so quiet and dark that I could sometimes hear my heart pounding as I walk and could not see my own shadow. That is how scary it is, I think this physical environment has created a fear within me, making me more conscious which is a negative attitude and this leads to many fears, walking at dark places at night sometimes give me false alarm where I always think that there is someone following behind me or there is a car at the corner waiting to kidnap me. Thoughts as such kept appearing in my mind as I walk down the gloomy and soundless street and without noticing I started running home. I feel that the environment is unsecure and creates a lot of fear within me in life.
There is always a positive side towards something negative. Having to deal with this kind of situation and the environment as it is what I gained here is being more alert and aware of the things going on around me and constantly adapting to the changes around the environment so that I can take precautions. Another thing is to always try to conquer the fear and to do that I have to be confident and firm so that I can control my own thoughts.
Being flexible in order to adapt to the different built environment is noble, however the designs of the built environment can be further developed into a more considerate environment to fulfill people's need and to make it more comfortable for the people living in it in this case, putting more street lights to ensure the safety of the neighborhood and to reduce the worries of others. It defeats the purpose of having leisure places in the suburb where you can use it during the day and cannot or so to say would not want to use in when the sun is down because it is too unsafe to walk out at night due to lack of brightness on the streets. The environment as such brings out negativity in the way I am thinking and I do hope that I could one day walk out without having to fear that something bad is going to happen.
