Meeting place, located on the centre of the official UTSC map (the map that includes Highland Creek and Pan Am Sports Centre) has already offered it a special meaning for being an important intersection point in the campus. Meeting place is the underground place if you access to it from Science Wing, but then it becomes the ground floor when come to the meeting place from library and Humanities Wing. The first impression that I had for the meeting place was just a place that connected to other buildings, therefore I could walk through it to reach other buildings when it is raining or snowing or extremely hot outside. After days and days, I experienced different atmosphere of the meeting place, quiet or noisy or busy or joyful. Just like other places, it has the power and magic to recall my memories and senses of place in UTSC.
The infrastructure of building is under a grey tone. The materials that used to build meeting place is fireproofing and anti-explosion, because it is connected to the numbers of laboratories, which create a certain safe environment for science students to do experiments. However, this grey tone and fireproofing material is creating and enhancing a sense of coldness and loneliness. The ground of meeting place is constructed with the mixture of three different colours of tiles, which are all in red-brown tones, thus, create a visual comparison with the overall grey tone to add colours to the place, so does a sense of warmness.
I was there at 4:02 on January 30th afternoon, a normal Tuesday afternoon, when I had normal classes, and was having my personal relaxation time. But it was unusual that there were booths in the meeting places, people were selling things. Upon on my arrival, most of the booths were cleaned, which left a much more less busy atmosphere in meeting place. The uncleaned tables and chairs were the signals which were telling people that it was busy and noisy before, and now everything started to return to normal. It had recalled me other days of the space in meeting place. In some days, meeting place was empty without any tables or chairs; some days, there were students presenting their posters; on Wednesdays, the farmers’ market always turn meeting place a joyful place with people’s talking and smells of bakery and candles. All these events, and movement of people and air have make the meeting place become a place for people to “meet”, for activities to “meet” the students and staff. It has the energy to hold and embrace all sorts of atmospheres.
There are decorations just over the main floor of the place, I don’t know what the meaning is, but the flow of winds caused by people walking by, somehow make the decoration paper lines waving and swaying in the middle of the air. There are white, orange and blue three different colours of decorating paper, and I am curious about the meaning of them. But I never asked anyone about these decorations, and I knew that they usually have meanings.
Sitting near the window and seeing people go through the meeting people, have give me additional feeling of this place. Not like the fast peace and crowded atmosphere in morning and early afternoon, or maybe it is just because now I am sitting in middle of the crowed, and do need to be concentrated into observations, my senses are all activated to see, hear, feel and think. Maybe it is late afternoon, and most of the busy time of the day has gone, therefore, students are walking not so fast. The movement of people and time, now start to slow down and precipitate. There are staff pulls the carts to across the meeting place. And I can see on her face, it is tired after a whole day working, and people pass by me walking alone usually do not have a smiling face. They are quiet, walking by, turning their heads around to see the environment. Only the clock on the wall recorded the day, and the waving decoration ribbons memorized the movement of people, flows of air as well the changes in senses of being in the meeting place in different time with different feelings.
