Walkscape as a non-formal education practice

There are cities within cities, cities that most people ignore. Sometimes, they cross them without realizing it, but mostly they are simply unaware of their existence. At first, architects looked at these new conglomerations of buildings, empty parking lots, squares, roads and other urban objects as diseases, tumors requiring treatment. They were defined as “urban chaos”, a generalized disorder emerged from the unplanned addition of casual elements. They were seen as the negative part of the cities, “voids” waiting to be filled. Later, they realized that these “voids” are not only waiting to be filled, they are living spaces to be filled with new meanings, where those on the margins of society seek refuge. They started seeing this “urban chaos”, these “voids” as spaces of opportunities. The only way to know them is to go through.

Retracing the anthropological and symbolic roots of walking, architect Francesco Careri (2006) defined a new way of crossing the space on foot: Walkscape. Based on the urban wanderings of the Dadaists, Surrealists and Situationists, Walkscape defines a new way of walking in the city, a way that aims to explore its “voids” to create new meanings. This is exactly what the members of the STALKER research group and the landscaper Nicolò Bassetti did when they walked along Rome’s ring road (“Grande Raccordo Anulare” or “G.R.A.”). Bassetti’s experience is documented in his book “Sacro Romano GRA” (2013), while a detailed description of Stalker’s walkscape can be found on the group’s website (articiviche.blogspot.com). Both Stalker and Basetti differently experienced territories that have been conceived to be ignored and hastily crossed by car. Summaries of their experiences are documented in the maps they created, maps that rename relevant places of Rome’s junction by subtracting them from their original function.