Method

Urbana šetnja (Urban walk)

Duration

2 hours

Where

Outdoor, but also suitable for exploring bigger indoor spaces (cultural venues, mixed use buildings)

Group size

5-50, but optimal number of participants is up to 25 because more productive discussion

01 · Objective

Urban walks help people experience and understand urban spaces from a more personal and critical perspective by directly observing and reflecting on their surroundings. Through shared walks and discussion, participants develop greater awareness of a place’s qualities and challenges while learning from different viewpoints. It encourages active engagement with public space and strengthens the capacity for collective action and participation in urban planning.

02 · When to use it

Understanding context and planning actions

03 · Step-by-step guide

1. Choose part of the city (specific neighbourhood, public space…) you want to explore through the urban walk. It can be related to a specific problem your community is facing in the city, an area that is usually inaccessible or simply part of the city that is full of stories waiting to be told and explored.

2. Prepare your tour. Choose 5-10 interesting points in the area where you want to stop and reflect. Those can be important historical or public spaces that hold interesting stories, but also (and probably more important) places in your neighbourhood that could use a reinvention or parts of the city that are currently under redevelopment and face decisions in terms of urban planning.

3. Do a trial walk and check how much time you need to go through all the points. You can also get inspired by spending time on location and discover new spots. Depending on how familiar you are with the area you can skip this step physically and do it through Google Maps only.

4. Announce the event and invite participants. Make sure you provide info about duration and difficulty of the route.

5. Hold the urban walk. As an introduction briefly share planned points of the route and expectations. Participants are invited to partake and share their stories and memories of the places you will visit. Make sure everyone feels welcome to share and invite them to stop the group during the walk if they have another interesting place on your route to add. On each point do a little introduction about the location. After that invite people to share their opinion, critics of the current state of the location, and then guide them to envision better scenario (new urban equipment, new programme etc.)

04 · Materials needed

no specific materials required

05 · Tips for facilitators

06 · Possible variations

07 · Downloads

01 · Download

02 · Download

03 · Download

04 · Download

08 · Method in practice

[Connect to custom field: _toolkit_method_image_id]