Urbanistica e cammino: nuovi orizzonti e riscoperta dello sguardo a bassa quota

The special session Urban planning and walking: new horizons and rediscoveries of the view from below here presented highlights: how much walking is still a useful practice for reading the condition of contemporary cities and territories; which recent experiences have been conducted and what are their distinctive features; if and what legacies they collect from the past; if and how walking contributes to the construction of urban and territorial policies, plans and projects; whether and to what extent the impacts of the social and economic crisis, the natural and climate disasters and the ongoing health emergency, have changed the reasons and usefulness of the observation from below in urban planning. The first section introduces the relevance of walking in planning and urbanism. The second section includes – without the ambition to be exhaustive – a first representation of the recent or in progress practices, researches and reflections on walking as a tool of observation, description and project in urban and territorial studies and in other disciplinary fields. In the third section, some issues are presented to investigate the contribution of walking for understanding the vulnerabilities of contemporary cities and territories, with reference to those created and / or exacerbated by the current health emergency.