The intricacy of walking in the city methods and experiments

International Conference _21-23 January 2015 _Marne -La- Valle _Paris

The experience of walking in the historical center of Athens: an intersection of topologies, practices and senses *
* this fieldwork is part of a PhD research at the UMR 8504 Gographie-Cits at the University of Paris

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context & purpose of the survey
The areas adjacent to the Acropolis hill have turned into an expanded construction site where numerous pedestrianizations weave a ludic landscape. Public initiative targets primarily the transformation of public
spaces as a key-element towards the commercialization of urban heritage. Although a highly developing
know-how in pedestrianization operations, the practice of walking per se is in reality very little explored. It is
the aim of this poster to present the richness of walking as a time-in-place practice. Talking while walking
with six citizens -during their everyday walkabouts- searches to reveal how senses, thoughts and temporalities make the path an act of embodiment.

profils & habits

6 personalities &
6 itineraries
1. Loizos is a bartender
2. Kostas is an actor
3. Makis is a lecturer in philosophy
4. Maria is a dentist
5. Andreas is an engineer
6. Panagiotis is an administrator in public
service

Average time walking per day in minutes

imaginaries of fear
and admiration
Number of years living in the city center

Age of the participants

the method
Seeking a way to enunciate walking as an experience, the survey opts for a bottom-up approach, which aims to decode the dual essence
of public space: as material layout and as constructed milieu. Talking while walking with six citizens -during their everyday walkaboutssearches to reveal how senses, thoughts and temporalities make the path a n act of embodiment. Participants were selected depending
on two criteria: their social position and the particularity of the itinerary that they proposed. The aim was to combine personalities and
itineraries as differ as possible between them in order to increase the variety of qualitative data. The journeys are conducted between
twenty minutes and two hours and were all indicated by the participants. While walking, people were encouraged to speak loosely about
their interactions with their entourage. The researcher walked side by side with the citizen, trying to have a minimal interference in the
participants spontaneous talk. Photographs were taken at locations or situations that the participant indicated. The transcription of the
audio has revealed six most commonly evoked themes of comments: memories, build environment, transport or mobility issues, social life
and general thoughts on planning and the city. Each itinerary is transcript on a map of a multi level information which represents the personal trail of walking experience. Each itinerary is accompanied by an album exposing some of the photos taken during the walk and the
comments refering to them. Each photos number is also indicated on the map

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credits : Dimitra KANELLOPOULOU - based on qualitative research held in Athens/Greece between 2012 and 2014 -softwares : Adobe Illustrator, Archicad, Adobe Photoshop