#HTE

Today’s Urban Design Observation: One Man One Cup

These are my coffee mugs. Some I got at colleges when I was on the lecture circuit. One I stole during the dotcom boom, others I got as gifts from clients when I was doing freelance industrial design. I’ve had these for years and none of them have much meaning to me. They hold my drinks, they’re always there and I don’t think about them, because they’re mugs in a cupboard.

But if you’re homeless, having a cup or a bottle is a big deal, particularly when your chief source of liquids is a municipal drinking fountain. And you need a place to store those items when they’re not in use.

Here is a local homeless man’s encampment under a scaffolding. I took the photos when he had left, presumably to go foraging.

And I noticed that he’s gotten his hands on a discarded plant and is using it to store his cup and lid.

The cup might get crushed or lost if buried in his possessions. The plant keeps them up and out of harm’s way.