I remember thinking about this phenomena in arch school musing over the paths taken. It's interesting that OP calls this "desire paths". My thoughts were that t

I remember thinking about this phenomena in arch school musing over the paths taken. It's interesting that OP calls this "desire paths". My thoughts were that these are more akin to orbits, or how rivulets establish a path over dirt, i.e. removed from notions of desiring. But I like the desire semantics. Supressing desire can build excitement. In fact, a very typical architectural device in ceremonial designs is to either slowly reveal, or to reveal and then take you on a long path as you slowly and finally reach a space or object. Architecture is, possibly, all about controlling desire. So collorary to the desire path is 'desire denied/delayed path', equally important to have in a designer's toolkit. [p.s. r/poitry/poetry]