ABSTRACT
This chapter aims at demonstrating that with a different approach in architectural pedagogies and heritage practices we can come to more socially sustainable heritage (re-) development projects. The here presented three-step methodology of Interactive Walking challenges the traditional material-focused view, nudging it towards a more anthropological perspective by directing attention primarily at the voiceless – that is, the “people overlooked as authorities capable of adjudicating their own sense of heritage”. The creative work of chronically sketching perceptions through mapping from the ground in Step 1: Interactive Journeys not only enables memorising the place but also deepens the knowledge about it through unexpected encounters. Step 2: Spatial Narratives adds a processual or narrative element – a story of how values happen for others, to what they are related and why and how they change. Recasting the observations and experiences in Step 3: Cartes Parlantes [Unveiling Maps] makes things clearer and deepens the practitioner’s understanding of the interactions between the different actors and the existing heritage landscape as a social narrative in relation to the (changing) identity of space.
