







THE HAND

THE SHOULDER





Throughout the duration of my MA course, I became increasingly intrigued in how we can form a more intimate and thoughtful relationship between the inhabitant and architectural or spatial elements. Through comprehensive research and empirical observations, it brought into focus a plethora of almost unnoticed moments, and the potential of subtle changes that could create major improvements in user experience. Here, came the idea of slightly altering and inspecting two spatial elements - the wall and the terrain - in order to create these personal connections, which later came to be considered as conversations between the individual human and the space through which they move. I argued that we must begin to dissolve spatial estrangement and weave intricate webs of interrelation between the spatial and the social, but too the physiological. We must begin to give glory to the pedestrian as an inhabitant of the city not just for its social or economic benefit, but in recognition that they are the main stage act in the theatre of spatially social intercourse. Though this style of motion and manner of moving through city space is commonly experienced, it can be spatially and socially prosperous when viewed through both the urban and the human lens. Taking these chosen phases of pedestrian transition on the site, Waterloo Station, this project explores ways in which we can spark this conversation between the spatiality and the inhabitant. Touching on elements such as accessibility, this spatial conversation was also aimed to be legible in different forms. In a sense, space should be bilingual in its communication. How can we design space and spatial elements that speak to the city dweller on a more spatially thoughtful, romantic level? It may not be noticed or appreciated by the mass, but for those that do, it is a cloud of companionship full of curiosity and subtle poetic quirk. Let us have walls that emulate the body and terrains that nudge to the wonders of walking. A symbiosis between the writer and the performer, it takes the everyday and creates a literature in the architectural allure.