Project Brief: "People Watching: Elegant curve, perfect container" is a study of human behavior and spatial design at St Catherine's Hill Nature Reserve in the UK. The project examines how people interact within this circular hill space with approximately 20-degree slope. Through field observation, I found that visitors comprise families (45%), friend groups (35%), couples (15%), and individuals (5%). Different groups exhibit unique patterns of movement and duration of stay: families typically stop for 1-5 minutes, couples for 5-10 minutes, and friend groups for 10-30 minutes. The core concept "Elegant curves, perfect container" reflects how this space naturally accommodates and connects different social groups, creating a harmonious public space.
Among these groups, l analyzed their dressing and found that each group has its own unique dressing characteristics. For example, family outings do notappear lo be very sporty, but more like daly family gatherings. Friends outings are more casual,and couples' outfts wilbe extra atentive. Maybe they are in aperiod of love, so they wil deliberately dress up.l was most impressed by the people alone. They love sports and have professional hiking gear. withprofessional hiking boots, hiking backpacks and professional clothes.
The diferent gruops have some diferences in what they say in such an environment, just like families together wil be more focused on caring languageoecause they wilbring their own children and family members, they wilolten say words ike "oau attenion to safety, Couples ofen sau "wow. it's so beautifuhere!" while friends travel more to make some jokes.
This place is big, and the places where people watch wilbe diferent. As shown in the picture, use diferent points to mark the positions where people prefer to stay, and red is the hotspot where people stay. looking at different positions will have diferent scenery.
As I just said, this place is a big place, and people's routes and length of stay are different, just like the family line will be a bit tortuous and there will be no long stay, because the children will run around and the family needs to follow, while couples travel, their routes will be relatively single, because the man needs to take care of the woman's body, and they will stay in a single place to watch the scenery, while the friends' route will be more complicated than the couple's route, and they will also stay for a long time, because when two friends are together, they will talk about a lot of things, which will prolong their stay here.
Here, people will have a certain connection with the environment, just like there is a bottle here, I guess maybe it was left by a few friends at a small party, so there must be a very happy time here. That day I was wearing a white T-shirt, I attracted a lot of ladybugs, I believe I got a very warm welcome from them, although this welcome is not very pleasant, but I think at this moment, I have a certain connection with this environment. Finally, I want to say that people will definitely leave a mark when they come to my place, and every piece of grass that people step on will also have its unique scars.
Here I want to say something very interesting. Because it rained that day, the way up and down the mountain was not easy to walk. At this time, a lady get in trubel. She asked me if I could help her down the mountain. I happily agreed. In the process of helping her, this is a very good person. Although the way down the mountain is indeed very difficult because it just rained that day, so it is very slippery, but we can know from her smile in this picture that this experience is interesting. I asked her why it is so difficult to walk here, and why she chose to come here. She said that she and her friends are willing to go to different places together, even if it is not easy there, but it will also let people enjoy it. This sentence touched me a lot, and at this moment, I also realized that this place is different. I was thinking, my God, this may not be just a hill, this may be a container.
It can make two familiar people become more intimate, let two unfamiliar people build a connection, and can also let people who reach here build a connection with the environment here. Although this container is not physical, I think it does exist. We can feel it through the five senses, breathe the air here, feel the temperature here, touch the plants here, appreciate the scenery here, listen to the animals here, we feel the people around us, we feel the environment around us, and feel this container, here can accommodate family affection, here can accommodate friendship, here can accommodate ourselves, this may exceed the meaning of a hill.