At the invitation of the Urbanism\Architecture Bi-City Biennale of Shenzhen and Hong Kong (UABB), Mr. Ma Ning, founding partner of MARS Studio, created an art installation titled Hedgehog's Dilemma for the Urban Animal section of the biennale.

A famous psychological experiment illustrates this concept: in winter, two hedgehogs huddle together to stay warm and survive. If they move too close, their spines prick each other; if they move too far apart, they cannot withstand the cold. They adjust and struggle until they find the perfect distance—safe from harm, warm enough to survive the winter together. This is known as the Hedgehog's Dilemma.

The curved surfaces, flowing fluidly upward and downward, form a semi-open space evoking the thicket habitats where hedgehogs naturally live. Two hemispherical arcs of differing heights curl inward and converge at their junction, creating a third space between the two primary volumes. This configuration provides ample space for two or even three hedgehogs to coexist harmoniously without pricking one another. It also suggests that when social spaces overlap, a comfortable social distance can be maintained through this intermediate third space.

Hedgehog's Dilemma alludes to the "psychological distance effect" in human social interaction: close relationships are often fraught with friction and conflict, which ironically are far more fraught than initial encounters. Do we not always show our sharpest edges to those closest to us? Perhaps Hedgehog's Dilemma offers a solution. From hedgehog to hedgehog, hedgehog to human, human to human, and human to nature, the maintenance of temporal and spatial distance is a fundamental law of survival. If human relationships can be improved through Hedgehog's Dilemma, then can harmony between humans and nature also be realized through this same principle?

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