Experiential Walks for Urban Design

The edited volume explores the topic of experiential walks, which is the practice of multi- or mono-sensory and in-motion immersion into an urban or natural environment. The act of walking is hence intended as a process of (re-)discovering, reflecting and learning through an embodied experience. Specific attention is devoted to the investigation of the ambiance of places and its dynamic atmospheric perception that contribute to generating the social experience. This topic is gaining increasing attention and has been studied in several forms in different disciplines to investigate the particular spatial, social, sensory and atmospheric character of places. The book contains chapters by experts in the field and covers both the theory and the practice of innovative methods, techniques, and technologies. It examines experiential walks in the perspective of an interdisciplinary approach to environmental and sensory urban design by organising the contributions according to three specific interrelated focuses, namely the exploration and investigation of the multisensory dimension of public spaces, the different ways to grasp and communicate the in-motion experience through traditional and novel forms of representation, and the application of the approach to urban participatory planning and higher education. Shedding new light on the topic, the book offers both a reference guide for those engaged in applied research, and a toolkit for professionals and students.

• urban design
• citizens engagement
• sensory environment
• urban ambiances
• urban participatory planning
• sensory experience of spaces
• Urban Geography and Urbanism

• Laboratorio di Simulazione Urbana Fausto Curti, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning (DASTU), Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

  Barbara E. A. Piga

• Graduate School of Architecture, UMR CNRS AAU, Nantes, France

  Daniel Siret

• CNRS—French National Centre for Scientific Research, UMR CNRS AAU, Grenoble, France

  Jean-Paul Thibaud