countermapping the city through feelings and physical perceptions

the workshop

on March 31, 2022 after the Urban Walk experience, a group of students led their in-class workshop to counter-map the city. The students, Ayesha Tak, Ben Koskowich, Fernanda Fontes, Niyousha Saeidi, and Sarah Chin designed the workshop by leveraging the insights provided by the walk.

they asked participants to write down the elements that they remembered about the following type of places encountered during the walk: places of worship, museums etc., coffee shops/restaurants, residences and stores. Then, they asked their colleagues to map the emotions, feelings, and physical perceptions they had during the walk and what element of the physical space provoked that. After that, they asked participants to recall in their mind a place and moment of the walk, to write down what they were feeling at that moment and try to sketch representing in a way that was reflecting their emotions.

the counter-map

after the workshop, students reorganized the insights that emerged during the activity in a counter-map. they represented the areas where they identified a contrast between people’s experiences of the harsh winter weather and the positive feelings and emotions created by the surrounding built and social environment.