The experiential walk diary. Mapping urban experience combining architecture and psychology

Abstract

The "experiential" walks represent a varied and sound approach applied in different disciplines to collect knowledge about urban contexts, paying attention both to their physical and social features. Due to the inherently interdisciplinary nature of such practices and their study objects, they represent a preferential method for developing a dialogue between urban design and social sciences. This paper contributes to this dialogue by presenting a procedure and an assessment tool designed to highlight the link between cities' environmental and psychosocial features. The method was applied in Milan in the framework of the activities of the international project CNRS International Research Group (GDRI) 'Translating Ambiances' (2014 – 2017). The results' analysis highlights some key elements of the shared perception of the Garibaldi-Repubblica area in Milan, offering a qualitative-quantitative representation of the participants' experience. We suggest different applicative uses for the proposed method, which allows obtaining comparable data from different contexts and types of participants.