IN-PERSON Prague Research & Teaching Conference

Abstract

This paper presents an interdisciplinary approach to explore the interplay between walkability, memory, sensory experience, imagination, and material surroundings. This approach is explored through the project, Walkability Between Past and Present, a pedagogical and research experiment that investigated embodied practices in the historic center of Prague. During a four-day creative mapping workshop, the approach embraced the ‘Slow Memory’ concept (Wüstenberg, 2023) emphasizing deceleration as a way for critically engaging with embodied analyses of walkability, navigating memory and urban change. The experiment activities focused on uncovering overlooked or forgotten memory pathways—shaped by individual experiences, collectively shared, and spatially stimulated. These activities, included lectures, exploratory walks, and hands-on sessions in bodily awareness, creative writing and digital mapping, guided participants to be present in an immersive experience of how memories and emotions are awakened within a rapidly transforming historic urban landscape. The outcomes were materialized through digital maps and analog impressions, with The Walking Journal, a specialized guiding tool developed for this project, that captured participants’ reflections, observations, and sensory engagements. This paper critically examines the conceptual framework, methodologies, and outcomes of the workshop, addressing its pedagogical and research challenges, as well as its potential contributions to cross disciplinary thinking in architectural, urban and memory studies. It ultimately highlights the value of slow, embodied practices as vital research methods for deep understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics in rapidly changing material realities to counterbalance the pressures of urgency that characterize contemporary academic research.