LINE THE STORY by ELENA STAMOULI

LINE THE STORY

To live, every being must put out a line, and in life these lines tangle with one another. TIM INGOLD

MASTER THESIS CONDUCTED BY ANASTASIIA BORODIIENKO AND ELENA STAMOULI IN SEPTEMBER 2016 KTH.ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY - MASTER IN URBANISM

CITY+ CITIZENS city

environmental conditions urban morphology topography

citizens personal perception cultural background narrative of space

Regardless a complex tissue of different aspects which create and influence urban environment, universal human values remain the same across both - physical borders and cultural boundaries. Nowadays, post-modern cities are becoming more and more human-oriented. The plannerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top-down approach towards city starts to be gradually replaced with the redinetion of the importance of the citizen position within the city. The shift in academic notions towards importance of citizens role in city-making process becomes more obvious. Who has the power to actually space the city? Places obtain their meaning through inhabitants spatial experience enveloped with emotional connotation and personal impressions. The role of certain urban forms can be both diminished and exaggerated by means of implication which users give to it. Insofar as it is useful to speak of the formal structure of everyday practices, that structure has two modes, physical and mental, and two aspects, spatial and temporal. We propose a new alternative map of the city, created by personal emotional and physical aspects of exploring the physical environment. We tend to talk about design as one of the tools for social inclusiveness and equality.However, designing for everyone, we often equate all differences and diversity of individuals to the term society or public, which reduces the sense of diversity by definition. This project can be considered as an attempt to overlay multiply individual stories embedded in the same city structure, in other words, to string personal movements and activities into necklace of urban public space in order to reveal unseen patterns.

This project can be considered as an attempt to overlay multiply individual stories embedded in the same city structure, in other words, to string personal movements and activities into necklace of urban public space in order to reveal unseen patterns.

The formal structure of urban life has two modes, physical and mental, and two aspects, spatial and temporal. Our project stems from the idea of the very strong relation between the city fabric and the human nature.

How do people choose to move around the city? We can trace specific data about citizens mobility and commuting patterns from city statistics. However, are they driven only by the rigid city structure and transport infrastructure? What does influence their choices? The relation between the city and its citizens is reciprocal.

Therefore, how does the city manipulate our everyday life and how our everyday patterns shape the city? One day, our decisions are caused by weather conditions, another day they depend on our mood. Our firstly conscious choices turn into constant preferences and evolve in habits. We pay less and less attention to our daily activities and they gradually become routines. We tend to underestimate the value of daily routines taken them for granted and way too trivial for scholars attention. Urban fabric of our cities is woven from memories and daily novels of citizens everyday life.The stories of the city are created by their users. They are imbedded in the structure and very essence of each city. The project visualizes the description of spatiality in citizens novels and its relation to the urban environment. These stories are translated into new kinds of poetic maps that have their origin in the complex tissue of the underlying stories with the physical structure of the city. Moreover, visualization lets us compare the cities, manifesting their distinguishing and most striking qualities of every city with underlying cultural and historical connotations.It lets us compare cities and Hence, the new alternative image of users-experienced city is created. It is also crucial to realise the value of data representation. Many profound researches become locked in the academic environment due to the absence of efficient way of communication the ideas to a wider audience. We believe that the alternative way of visualization can be beneficial for both - city dwellers and urban researchers. On the one hand, personal movements and patterns can unveil invisible layers of the experienced city and be beneficial for the creation of desirable cities tomorrow.These traces can provide city makers with an alternative vision of the city, shedding light on patterns which are often neglected. On the other hand, we encourage city dwellers to be more conscious about the way they interact with environment and be aware of their role as the city-makers.

URBAN ROUTINES

Athens [Ancient Greek: Ἀθῆναι Athēnai], is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world’s oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning around 3,400 years. The urban area of Athens (Greater Athens and Greater Piraeus) extends beyond its administrative municipal city limits, with a population of 3,090,508 over an area of 1.140km2. The dominant feature of the city’s climate is alternation between prolonged hot and dry summers and mild winters with moderate rainfall. Athens is affected by the urban heat island effect in some areas which is caused by human activity,altering its temperatures compared to the surrounding rural areas,and bearing detrimental effects on energy usage, expenditure for cooling, and health.

ATHENS

KYIV

AREA : 1.140km2

AREA : 839 km²

POPULATION : 3.090million WEATHER : 33°C - 24 % Humidity

POPULATION: 2.804 million WEATHER: 24°C - 57 % Humidity

The population in July 2015 was 2,887,974 making Kiev the 8th most populous city in Europe. Kyiv has a humid continental climate. Modern Kyiv is a mix of the old buildings (70 percent of more than 1,000 buildings built during 1907–1914 are preserved), Soviet heritage (including constructivism and stalinist architecture) and new, rather eclectic, style influenced by contemporary Western European architecture. Urban sprawl has gradually reduced, while population densities of suburbs has increased. The city is known as a green city with two botanical gardens and numerous large and small parks.

The transport system in Athens has been modernised the last 15 years. New roads, bridges, a brand new rail network and new modern means of transport like the Athens Metro, the suburban railway and the Athens Tram have reduced a lot the transportation problems of Athens, as well as they have played a main role to the reduce of the atmosphere pollution of the Attica basin. Athens incorporates architectural styles ranging from Greco-Roman and Neoclassical to modern. They are often to be found in the same areas, as Athens is not marked by a uniformity of architectural style. In the mid and late 19th century, Theophil Freiherr von Hansen and Ernst Ziller took part in the construction of many neoclassical buildings such as the Athens Academy and the Zappeion Hall. Beginning in the 1920s, Modern architecture including Bauhaus and Art Deco began to exert an influence on almost all Greek architects, and buildings both public and private were constructed in accordance with these styles. After World War II, internationally known architects have designed and built in the city included Walter Gropius, with his design for the US Embassy, and, among others, Eero Saarinen, in his postwar design for the east terminal of the Ellinikon Airport.

Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. It is one of the oldest cities of Eastern Europe and it is believed that the city was founded in the late 9th century.

Local public transportation in Kyiv includes the Metro (underground), buses and minibuses, trolleybuses, trams, taxi and funicular. There is also an intra-city ring railway service. Kyiv retained through centuries its cultural importance and even at times of relative decay, it remained the centre of primary importance of Eastern Orthodox Christianity .

KYIV

ATHENS

MENTAL MAPS + CITY TALES

KEVIN LYNCH

city

citizens

actual city map infrustructure

mental maps city tales

environmental conditions urban morphology topography

personal perception cultural background narrative of space

What does the city’s form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city’s image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions Kevin Lynch has developed a method of mental mapping, , which is one of the main contributions to the theory of the perceptual form of urban environments. Mental maps are an outcome of the field of behavioral geography. The imagined maps are considered one of the first studies that intersected geographical settings with human action.The most prominent contribution and study of mental maps was in the writings of Kevin Lynch. In The Image of the City, Lynch used simple sketches of maps created from memory of an urban area to reveal five elements of the city; nodes, edges, districts, paths and landmarks.Lynch claimed that “Most often our perception of the city is not sustained, but rather partial, fragmentary, mixed with other concerns. Nearly every sense is in operation, and the image is the composite of them all.” The creation of a mental map relies on memory as opposed to being copied from a preexisting map or image. In The Image of the City, Lynch asks a participant to create a map as follows: “Make it just as if you were making a rapid description of the city to a stranger, covering all the main features. We don’t expect an accurate drawing- just a rough sketch.” In the field of human geography mental maps have led to an emphasizing of social factors and the use of social methods versus quantitative or positivist methods. Mental maps have often led to revelations regarding social conditions of a particular space or area. Haken and Portugali developed an information view, which argued that the face of the city is its information . Bin Jiangargued that the image of the city (or mental map) arises out of the scaling of city artifacts and locations. Admitting the strong connection between psychology and environment, we make the hypothesis that by lining daily patterns we can fortify our awareness of the important interrelation between the city fabric and daily human engagement.

“Most often our perception of the city is not sustained, but rather partial, fragmentary, mixed with other concerns. Nearly every sense is in operation, and the image is the composite of them all.”

The research is conducted in two different urban environments, two cities with different physical, economic and political context; Athens and Kyiv. Different urban morphologies and spatial forms, which interweave with different notions and mentalities. Is there a common ground?

PERSONAL STORIES

The structure of this project is based on the very strong relation between the city fabric and the human nature. Therefore, we put peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stories in the centre of the research. We chose the tool of mental mapping and interviwuing as a means of extracting information from people who use the city fabric in a daily basis. The aim of the interview is to collect material on how the participants actually perceive the city fabric in relation to their everyday walking routines. Interviews are alsodesigned to record additional information about the feelings that people have for their city. An additional interest is the participantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s memory of their activities and what is the mental image of their daily routes. Interviews were conducted in both capitals and therefore a specific framework had to be set in order to have comparable outputs. A radius of 4km was set in order to interview people who walk in a daily basis within this distance. The intervieweesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; group consists of seven young and active people who work in the center of each city. Each interviewee was asked to draw a mental map including also additional elements they use for navigation, orientation or simply remind them about the route; this includes street names, buildings or urban settings. The participants draw these maps during the interview, without any visual assistance such as maps or graphics. It is only their memory they can use and therefore are said to represent the mental image the individual carries in his/her mind. In this setting the mental image of what the participants remembers of their daily trips will be provoked to be visualized. Participants are asked to draw all the same journey, the daily trip from home to their work place, to possible destinations during the day and back. This will provide a minimal base they all have in common to let them become comparable.

- Why do you choose this route? - Do you have alternative routes? - What are the most important points/landmarks of your route?

- If I was shutting your eyes how could you identify your route? - Do you usually prefer exterior public spaces or enclosed ones? - Do you enjoy moving around the city? Does the city restrain you or give you options? - What do love and what do you hate in the city?

ATHENS

KYIV

CITY JOURNEY

MICHEL DE CERTEAU

city

citizens

actual city map infrustructure

mental maps city tales

environmental conditions urban morphology topography

personal perception cultural background narrative of space

city journeys

Michel de Certeau in his famous “The Practice of Everyday Life” points out that scholars attention is rather driven by the interest to traditions, language, symbols, art that make up a culture, while everyday practices - ways in which people reappropriate formal forms in everyday situations - are rather neglected. In de Certeau’s city “a spatial order organizes an ensemble of possibilities and interdictions. De Certeau’s vision of twentieth-century everyman’s environment makes the walker who is the city’s “ordinary practitioner” into an inventor, for he “actualizes some of the possibilities” in the city’s spatial order by means of the path he takes. He makes the possibilities which he chooses “exist as well as emerge.” Every story is a travel story - a spatial practice, a city journey. For this reason, spatial practices concern everyday tactics, are part of them, from the alphabet of spatial indications. Space is a practiced place. By getting all these information from mental mapping, the main question was still - how can we combine physical and mental aspects of everyday life in something whole? For this, we propose to visualize this interrelation through the alternative map of the city, created by personal city journeys.

“The networks of these moving, intersecting writings compose a manifold story that has neither author nor spectator, shaped out of fragments of trajectories and alterations of spaces: in relation to representations, it remains daily and indefinitely other.”

ATHENS

KYIV

ATHENS

KYIV

KATERINA, 24

ATHENS

IEVGEN, 27

KYIV

DIMITRIS, 26

ATHENS

VALENTINA, 27

KYIV

CLAIRE, 35

ATHENS

DMYTRO, 35

KYIV

FOTIS,28

ATHENS

NATALI,27

KYIV

MARINA,29

ATHENS

ALYONA, 27

KYIV

XENIA, 26

ATHENS

IGOR, 32

KYIV

ATHENS

OBSERVATIONS - Syntagma is clearly the city centre, since almost all participants are going through it at least once time per day. - People who commute by car at least at some parts of their daily routine, they tend to leave it outside the city centre and commute by means of public transport such as metro, bus and tram. - Narrators who spend a big amount of time in public transport, when they come to the point that they need to walk, they chose the fastest way. - Narrators who live and work with the city centrem, they tend to walk much more and choose alternative routes more often. - Blocks in Athens are bach smaller and streets much more narrow which allows people to have more alternatives in terms of walking, while urban blocks in Kyiv are larger and provide fewer options for routes. - In Athens city centre the overall scale and distances are smaller, therefore people prefer walking for going to point A to point B, while in Kyiv, boulevards, wide streets and big blocks make people prefer taking the metro even for shorter distances.

KYIV

Commuting maps illustrate the patterns of citizens movement around the whole city. Apparently, the city centre serves as an urban magnet for city users, combining different functions and qualities within a dense city core. Therefore, most interactions with city forms occur exactly there. In this part, contrary to the previous morphological maps, we neglected city structure in order to conduct quantitative analysis of average distances overcame by interviewees during a day. All routes executed during a day are split into parts according to the starting points and final destinations (for example, home-workplace, workplace - â&#x20AC;&#x153;thirdâ&#x20AC;? place, workplace - home etc). Second aspect of our interest is correlation between walking and commuting parts of the route. It becomes visible even merely by marking commuting segments as dashed lines and walking parts as solid ones. Another aspect of our interest is time spent on the daily journey. Apparently, duration of the route does not depend on the distance directly, but rather works as an evidence for the efficiency of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s transport infrastructure. Hence, in both capitals, people who live far from the city centre not necessarily spend much more time on their regular journeys than those who reside closer.More distant commuters, restricted by the timeframe, tend to be more determined choosing the route and emphasize the time efficiency as the main priority for their choices. Nevertheless, persons living in the city centre tend to walk around much more, making more spontaneous stops and being more flexible in terms of choosing the route. Focusing on commuting patterns, it was impossible not to take into account the reasons for the route - interviewees destinations and stops during the day. To illustrate this, six main types of stops were distinguished: light blue represents home, purple - work, pink is so-called third place (cafe, shops, bars), while others represent enforced stops - interchange of transport modes (blue - metro, green - bus, orange - car). Remarkably, most of our observations can be applied for both - Athens and Kyiv, and do not highlight drastic differences in commuting patterns.

HOME

WORK

STOP

METRO

BUS

CAR

COMMUTING

ATHENS C

25.2KM/50’

2.4KM/70’

13KM / 50’

2.6KM/90’

-/ -

3.2KM/90’

15KM / 50’

2.6KM/100’

-/-

6.3KM/110’

14/ 35’

W 2.3KM/80’

6KM /25’

1.8KM/20’ HOME

WORK

STOP

METRO

BUS

CAR

KYIV C

12KM/50’

5.6KM/60’

31.5KM / 85’

8KM /80’

-/ -

5KM/100’

12KM / 50’

2.4KM/30’

-/-

4KM/1O0’

-/-

1.7KM/30’

22KM /95’

1.5KM/30’ HOME

WORK

STOP

METRO

BUS

CAR

WALKING

TIM INGOLD

city

citizens

environmental conditions urban morphology topography

personal perception cultural background narrative of space

mental maps city tales

actual city map infrustructure

city journeys

walking

Walking; the elementary form of

the experience of the city - is chosen as a key case study. The aim is to identify how urbanites experience the city through walking and how their perception of the city fabric is influenced by the urban morphology. Presumably, most people do not pay much attention to the fact how environment influence their everyday practices and what makes them chose their way of movement around the city. Movement with the city fabric is never random, and more specifically in case of daily routines. In this chapter we are trying to unfold personal urban stories along the walking route. These are oral tales narrated from memories evoked from the imaginary walk along the most common everyday routes.Thus,perception of every route is strongly correlated with the person’s position in the city and experience of the urban environment and his perception. It is interesting to trace how imaginary walk along well-familiar itineraries evokes memories and different senses. The walking map of the city centre becomes a system of collective representations of what the city means for its user. Therefore, urban environment gives a shape and physical expression of the everyday practices of individuals.Our everyday city experience begins once with step over the threshold of our private space - homes and face the open space of the city - public space. Walking practice can not be considered as merely observation of the city. It is also not merely about the interaction with physical environment either. A way of walking reveals thoughts and feelings which are affiliated with the cultural and educational background of every user. The way of movement is strongly interrelated with both - urban and cultural contexts. Nevertheless, turning into everyday routines these practices become more and more automatic and unconscious.

“When did our walk begin? When will it ever end? We cannot remember, and will never know. Walking, in this regard, is much like talking, and both are quintessential features of what we take to be a human form of life…. Life itself is as much a long walk as it is a long conversation, and the ways along which we walk are those which we live.”

KATERINA, 24

ATHENS

“When I get to Dimokritou I always turn my head right

to say good morning to the people who work in the pastry shop right across the street”

“ In summertime I buy an ice cream

from the periptero outside the Metro station”

“ I like there are so many

people on the street selling handmade things..”

CAFE

“ Nice and well maintened

“All the small alleys and arcades allow you to walk as you like even if the weather is not good enough”

facades”

“I love walking on Dionisiou Aeropagitou,

the energy of

the Acropolis hill is so intense”

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OFFICE

DIMITRIS, 26

CLAIRE, 35

“you see

“In warm summer nights I usually go to the open air cinema

“uphills usually during summer are very tiring... Athens is definately a non-flat city”

“In Solwnos you can easily break a leg due to the holes

colours everywhere! ”

on the sidewalks. ”

OFFICE

under the Parthenon or in Dexameni under Likavitos Hill, its magical”

“facades are black because of

“There are two musicians

playing music almost everyday.”

pollution ”

“I usually buy flowers for the office from the

flower

kiosk in Voukourestiou”

“where protests take place, which is a very common phenomenon, the city centre can be transformed into a war zone ”

“Flower and newspaper kiosks” ‘This traffic light is always out of order”

“everyday at around 2 or 3 I leave office,

I buy a cup of coffee and I start walk for an hour to clear my head, it really helps me

“I definately prefer walking than taking the car in the city centre, trying to find a parking

“althought, I hate the city traffic when its too silent in July or August I get slightly depressed”

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relax”

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noise,

place

can take an hour and it costs a lot”

FOTIS, 28

MARINA, 29

“secret squares, internal courtyards, stoes, rooftops, farmers markets..its human

scale ”

“streets, sidewalks, steps, squares... I can spend hours being in all these spaces, just sitting with friends and observe while drinking wine”

people

“I dont see many children in the very city center.” “my route has very intense

“in Athens we don’t have in our everyday life”

parks

periptero under my apartment,

HOME

“sidewalks need reconstruction, there are wholes everywhere!” “in winter I buy chestnuts “In Klafthmonos square I always stop instantly to look at

from

go at a high

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point from

where I can enjoy

the view”

M “almost everyday I try to find time to go and buy a cheesepie from Athinakion in Stoa Eboriou ”

“I usually automatically go the fastest way”

kiosk”

the monument of National Reconciliation ”

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“grab a coffee and

OFFICE

and I always say kalimera to the guys who own it, they have become my friends”

CONSTRUCTION SITE

either to avoid rain or very strong sun!” “...small alleys with shops that sell whatever you can think of, I always make a stop to the handmade door handles shop close to the Metro stop”

OFFICE

“the first landmark of my route is the

“I usually walk under the arcades,

terrain differences; uphills, downhills and different textures; asphalt, gravel, earth, concrete, marble,grass..”

XENIA, 26

ELENA, 27

“the way I move depends on my and “When the weather allows it we take our chairs and tables and place them across the street to the Navarinou square”

“the moment I step out of the house everything happens automatically”

“Kallidromiou street is a comforting visual escape”

“I usually choose to leave from a

different metro stop

”A city on fire, a flower that blossoms”

HOME

M OFFICE

“When it is raining I always choose Ippokratous because of the covered

“Every morning

arcades that protect me

“In stoa

you find the best coffee art and crafts shops”

“The coffee place

“Althought there is a staircase that way, I still prefer it when I want to walk undistracted”

due to the very

of people”

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places,

I buy a koulouri from Mr.Thanassis in Voukourestiou and then an orange juice from the juice kiosk”

“Syntagma is freaking me out

NATIONAL DANCE ACADEMY of Yiannis is like our backyard. We go there, wearing our ballet uniform, for a break and have the funniest and longest discussions”

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mood

from the one in which I arrived”

graffiti on the wall SQUARE

the weather”

50 100

200m

50 100

200m

big number

“I prefer walking

on wider sidewalks”

IEVGEN, 27

KYIV

OFFICE Though the city grid is regular, and all routes to my office have the same distance, I intuitively chose the street which is easier to cross.

“ ... a monument of Skovoroda is the main landmark for wayfinding”

If I have enough time on my way back home, I walk to Poshtova metro station instead.

Next, I go through the area with kiosks (and more solid structures) and ladies who are selling stuff on the pavement Also I like trees here, there is a green lawn, with something like playground.

“... residential yard is a pleasant way to walk through anyway. Most of people

make a shortcut here.

HOME

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VALENTYNA, 27

DMYTRO, 35

“I live in an area where all houses are the same from Khrushchev times. Once I started to study in this area, I discovered architecture of different epochs.

“As a girl, I also can distinguish the quality of

the pavement

“ I avoid

- it forces me to change my high heels shoes to comfortable sport ones.”

That's great that these old houses are preserved. “

meeting

my ex-colleagues, who have a place for smoking exactly right on the corner.

‘It's my "native" district.

I am well familiar with it since my young years.

Though the route is not the most pleasant one,

I know all the courtyards around here. “

my mood

is never spoiled”

OFFICE

“What I dislike is

the car parking on the sidewalks,

ART GALLERY

apart from pedestrian inconveniences,

HOME

it damages the

pavement.”

The route depends on my mood,

amount of free

TRAM

“Instead of walking around, I would prefer to order

a cup of coffee at any nice cafe or restaurant“

I often arrange meeting in my favorite park Schevchenko.

and enjoy my time there...

They've placed new benches , a few "quick points" with tea and coffee,

“.....there is a park with

an old fountain, only 4 fountains of this kind are remained in entire Kyiv! A beautiful

you can buy coffee and walk around the park.

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time and my plans

imperial house of the ministry is on the opposite side.”

NATALI, 27

ALYONA, 27

MEETING PLACE

“Underground passage is constantly under ongoing refurbishment, the pavement was improved recently though”

M OFFICE

I always follow

If after the meeting I don't feel like coming back home,

the sun.

I go to the

Whatever part is in shadow, I am trying to avoid it.

“the traffic is heavy here, ...but this is the city centre!

park again

in order to reveal all my thoughts.

Especially when it comes to

Especially the boulevard... that's why I tend to walk by foot.

high-rise buildings

which cause additional shadow.

Can't even imaging traveling by car here...”

“This walking experience for me is an endless source of

communication with the city,

“I need to cross five

“Then, I pass by a bank headquarter, thus this part of sidewalk is

myself and others.”

always neat and clean with accurately cut

railway tracks, narrow river over a small bridge and

a motorway to get to my gym. it’s super

bushes and perfect grass.”

DANCE SCHOOL

I like this route -

HOME

quick and straight!

Though, I wouldn’t recommend it to those who get scary easily.”

GYM

We avoid

the underground passage,

because my dog hates it.

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IGOR, 32

ANASTASIIA, 26

There is a long transition way in between metro lines because of

number of people

Usually,

in peak hours.

I run over this distance in 3 min passing around 50 people.

“Walking is an alternative

There is an underground passage but it doesn't restrict my pace of walking.

I am always trying to diversify

for meditation for me.”

my short

OFFICE M

OFFICE

route to office.

I like to make a start of my working day a bit more special just popping into a nice cafe for a cup of morning coffee.

M M

HOME

The main criteria for choosing the way is

efficiency and distance.

Very pragmatic one. “...what annoys me the most sidewalks occupied by parked cars and numerous random kiosks”

GYM

“One of the main advantages of the area -

botanical garden and park Schevchenko.”

I would invent a teleport to get directly from my office to the gym. “Afterwork,

I often take my book with and enjoy reading in this vivid green oasis

among hustle and bustle of the city centre.”

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VERBAL MAPS

By putting all the stories together, we created so-called

verbal

maps

for both cities, which represents what the city actually means for their users. Therefore, every seperate map describes the image of the city verbally.

city

citizens

environmental conditions urban morphology topography

personal perception cultural background narrative of space

mental maps city tales

actual city map infrustructure

The vocabulary of modern researches on urbanism studies can be considered as one more evidence of the globalization and generalization of city studies. The word “urban” has been used rather as an acronym for modern dynamic cities. It needs to be said, in order to retrieve more veracious information, we conducted the interviews in mother tongue of our respondents. Interviewing our respondents, we faced the issue of narrowness of the conventional international urban vocabulary. Many of definitions cannot be even translated in English, due to their tight interrelation to the “home” context. On the other hand, some notions (such as “public space” in case of Kyiv) is openly borrowed from western concept, since they did not exist by definition. Moreover, it is noticeable how specific words gain connotation in particular urban context. For example, Ukrainian word “dvir” (literally can be translated as “yard”) is commonly understood by Kyivans.

city journeys

city

місто πόλη

walking

verbal maps

Encouraging the interviewees to tell their city stories, we started to form a new urban glossary for each of the cities in order to create a stronger contextual sense. This would not merely illustrate the distinctive features of each urban environment, but also emphasizes how common are these definitions in people’s everyday vocabulary. Thank to the analysis, it also becomes obvious that despite the certain peculiarities of urban forms, there are also many commonly used universal definitions such as “weather”, “mood”, “plans” etc., which are rather reflection of the human nature. In particular, we were interested what motivates people chose one route or another.

Creating these verbal maps we came to the conclusion that despite the fact we conducted a research in two different urban contexts the universality of the human nature can strongly set the guideline on how an urban space can be conceived and experienced.

TIME

HILL

DIRTY

SUMMER NIGHTS

KALIMERA

ORANGE TREES

MUSIC

GRAFFITI

STOA

PERIPTERO

ATHENS

CITY CENTRE

COFFEE

MOOD

UNDERGROUND PASSAGE STREET

PLANS

CARS TRAFFIC

FOOD

VIEW

BOULEVARD

TREES

PARK

COFFEE

ARCADES

CAFE

SHORTCUT

QUICK

WEATHER

RESIDENTIAL YARD

SQUARE

NOISE

STREET

UPHILLS

MEETING PEOPLE

TRAFFIC CAR PARKING

MOOD

KOULOURI AUTOMATICALLY

STREET

PEZODROMOS

POLIKATOKIA

STEPS

INTUITIVELY

KYIV

CONCLUSION.. This project can be considered as an attempt to overlay multiply individual stories in order to reveal unseen patterns. These stories are translated into new kinds of maps that have their origin in the complex tissue of the underlying stories with the physical structure of the city. We believe that the alternative way of mapping can be beneficial for both - city dwellers and urban researchers. On the one hand, personal movements and patterns can unveil invisible layers of the experienced city. On the other hand, we encourage city dwellers to be more conscious about the way they interact with environment and be aware of their role as city-makers. The citizen is not just an observer, it ia vital organ of the complex organism that we call “city”. The person whoperformas daily activities in the urban environment is a flaneur who can get lost and found in city streets. Feelings, conditions and time are crucial factors that define how the flaneur inhabits the space and draw its daily lines within this context. These new ways of mapping might seem controversial but they can really reveal hidden and neglected qualities of the everyday urban life. that can be evaluated on later stages. This research cannot have a clear conclusion at this point. The relation of the citizen with the city produces endless material for research and experimentation. Citizens and their mental memories of the city which they live in will always give us ground for study and analysis.

“The city is redundant: it repeats itself so that something will stick in the mind[..] memory is redundant: it repeats signs so that the city can begin to exist.” ― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities