30 July 2025
4:14 pm
I see the point of these pocket parks. I have to submit my thesis under a month. I have to find a new place to live. I have spent the last week panicking. I have panicked on some level. It has reached my home in India. I have successfully managed to pass on my insomnia to my father, my mother and my sister, my friends too.
But sitting at the Drury lane pocket parks, looking at the kids play, shout and just be themselves is doing something to my serotonin levels. My matcha from Jenki is adding to them. I’ll turn off my Jab Tak Hai Jaan playlist and immerse myself into the environment now.
There are two things that I have realised today.
Places are perceptions. Reality doesn’t exist, it is built. I probably do not love London, it has kept me away from my parents. I do, however, love the idea of London. I deliberately play ‘Challa’ as I walk through Trafalgar Square; hell, I even skip some steps matching my strides with the beats. I have all of my main character moments as I walk on the Millennium Bridge, all of them.
The other thing I realised is that the experience of a pocket park is meant for you to stumble on it. I was going to come to this park yesterday, but all the planning took the fun out of it. Now I’m sat on a bench here and I feel so calm. It has little story trail stickers which I’ll look into later.
Talked to an urban sketcher, sketching in front of St.Paul’s- She discovers green space with the help of her bicycle.
Compare your study to Ben Wilson- he breaths life into something dull and grey- the bridge. Great comparison with your aim. People stopping to discover- observation. Trail- small scale interventions.
Your canvas is discarded gum—something people don’t even look at. What does that say about value, attention, and beauty?
-story collective.
Design outcomes:
Picnic merch
Utility in rains and winter