Thomas Smith,  Year 5

Descending Water

Moving to London from the leafy New Forest coastline, my visits to the Highgate ponds have become a weekly necessity. An escape from the city where I purge myself of trivial woes. Soothing a mind and body that yearns for the untamed nature of its childhood.

Water’s ephemeral properties awaken the senses. With our tribal uniforms removed, we expose oneself, releasing barriers between us and nature. Only In this raw state can we truly tap into our primal and physiological needs, improving our health and well-being. As an active participant in the culture of the ponds, I understand the social and health opportunities that bathing and their communities provide.

My motivations for the project are to draw this culture and natural environment down from the Highgate ponds into the city, inserting water infrastructure along the water catchment of the lost River Fleet. A series of landscape installations and city interventions will form a journey of interconnected bathing spots through the city, altering the site hydrology whilst offering new opportunities for inhabitation, such as bathing. To achieve this goal, we must advocate for water-sensitive design strategies that create healthy water environments, whilst exploring the experiential variances of water typologies and their states.