In 2002, I installed a small button labelled “R” alongside the regular floor numbers in lifts at the University of Plymouth. Press it, and the lift takes you somewhere random.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea grew out of a frustration with how buildings \u2014 and lifts especially \u2014 are designed for efficiency. They take you straight from where you are to where you’re supposed to be, skipping everything in between: other floors, other people, the unplanned encounters that actually make a building feel alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Random Lift Button breaks that. It hands your destination over to chance, and occasionally drops you somewhere you’d never normally go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remarkably, it’s still there \u2014 still functioning, more than two decades later. Recently it found an unexpected second life: a YouTube documentarist called BenO discovered it, recorded himself using it, and his video has now had over 63,000 views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Travelling in code never felt so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n