Desire Lines at Play: “Informal Movement & Spontaneous Occupation In Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park” Part 2 Dissertation 2026 Akmol Hamid University of East London London | UK Desire Lines at Play investigates the relationship between designed public landscape and everyday patterns of human behaviour within Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Focusing on the playground and surrounding landscape opposite the University of the Arts London, the dissertation explores how people move through, occupy, and reinterpret space beyond the intentions of the original masterplan.The research combines landscape theory with primary observational analysis, using drone-based recording, behavioural mapping, movement tracing, and site observation to examine the formation of desire lines, informal occupation, and spontaneous social activity. Drawing upon the work of Gehl, Whyte, Lynch, de Certeau, Lefebvre, and Waldheim, the study considers how users actively negotiate circulation routes, edges, planting, topography, and environmental conditions in real time.The dissertation argues that informal movement and occupation should not be understood as failures of design, but as evidence of successful and adaptable public space. By revealing how people continuously modify, refine, and complete the spatial logic of the landscape through everyday actions, the research challenges conventional distinctions between designed intention and lived experience.Through the combination of architectural theory, landscape analysis, and original field research, the dissertation offers an alternative reading of contemporary public landscapes, demonstrating that their success lies not only in ecological or infrastructural performance, but also in their capacity to accommodate human adaptability, spontaneity, and participation. Tutor(s) Clare Penny