By: Grace Lo, SFU Student

Imagine this: you’re walking through the Mezzanine at SFU Surrey, headed for the computer labs. You’ve got an assignment due soon, a couple of things to print off, and you should — THUD. 

You lose your train of thought. Your hand is clasped around the left door handle. Did the door not open? Is the computer lab closed? No, there are students inside. You try the door again, pushing and pulling. Alright, maybe it’s the door on the right that opens, so you try pushing that handle. Nope, you’re still stuck. 

You take a moment to ponder what sins you may have committed in a past life to land you in this purgatory of non-functional doors. Finally, you try pulling the right door. The God of Doorways is merciful and allows you passage for your suffering.

Clearly, as evidenced by the above scenario, whoever designed the doors to the SFU Surrey’s Fire Fighters Computer Lab didn’t get the memo that the best doors are doors you don’t even notice that you’re walking through. So-called “Norman Doors,” like the ones at the Surrey computer lab, are doors that trick people into thinking they can be opened a certain way.

The doors at The Fire Fighters Computer Lab aren’t just confusing, though; half of the set is entirely non-functional and are almost always locked. And if that isn’t enough to sell you on how mildly infuriating these doors are, the handles are mounted on an angle — different angles for the two doors.

If you’re ever down at Surrey campus, pop by and marvel at this architectural failure. And for a bit of schadenfreude, you can watch students die a little bit inside as they try and fail to open the doors.