For us urban dwellers, defining, interpreting and experiencing
nature on the urban scale may seem a social oxymoron. Historically the
city has been kept separate from nature, removed because society tells
us that nature in its pristine state cannot exist within the
industrious confines of the city. Perhaps it is this stigma which
influences our perception of nature in the city. Or perhaps, it is the juxtaposition or the unexpectedness of
experiencing nature in an urban setting, that keeps the actual event
energized and anything but commonplace.

So then, how would one design a Nature Trail in the City?

"People observe the city while moving through it, and along these
paths the other environmental elements are arranged and related" --
Kevin Lynch, The Image of The City

As a school of design, Pratt's urban campus offers great potential as
a canvas for the creation of a nature trail. The right-brained of us
may jump to images of indigenous plants flanking a meandering path of
soft damp wood chips.

But would this method of merely recreating nature really harness the
creativity of our campus? Or could the creation of a nature trail on campus be an ongoing
exercise in design, a conceptual exercise constantly evolving and reinterpreting nature, path and design.

In a publication of Public Art Review, Foundations Professor,
Cathey Billian articulates the challenge of such a design concept.

"For me, the loudest knock of all, however, has been from passion
trying to enter into the language of both public art and environmental
interpretation-- two site-based disciplines that create a powerful
sense of destination, but often leave out the sense of process: the
exploring, perceiving, and digging--deeper. Perhaps the real
challenge is to give this process material forms--to infuse the art
product with the passion of the creative act."

And if this process were to take the shape of a trail..."Suggested in
the trail is the possibility of stopping, altering, or magnifying time
as we normally experience it."