14 | Via Morgagni

COMMENTED WALKS

Parco Morgagni : Interlude, Sanctuary, Community [Passing / Staying / Gathering]

Contemporary Cities: Descriptions and Projects Politecnico di Milano - MSc Urban Planning and Policy Design Prof. Laurent Devisme Alice Buoli, Matteo Del Fabbro, Mario Paris [GROUP 14] Juliette Hautbergue, Theodora Pappas, Ana Sofia Quiros, Laraine Anne Valles

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I. INTRODUCTION The aim of this exercise was to apply an empirical approach to uncovering and understanding users’ perceptions of urban spaces. Focus was placed not on our impressions of a “fragment” of the city, but rather on the regular passerby’s perception. We based our methodology on the one implemented in Jean-Paul Thibaud’s Commented City Walks, with the exception of the following differences: 1. Instead of one observer, we were four.

2. We tried to remain as objective and discreet as possible during the walks with the respondents, however, sometimes active interaction was necessary to elicit the information we were looking for and to create an atmosphere of trust.

3. Our result is an amalgamation of all the respondents’ comments, not just one subject.

4. The length of the selected path and the duration of interaction were shorter than the recommended 20 minutes.

5. The exercise was carried out over a total of two days - at contrasting hours and instances (night vs. day, weekend vs. weekday, etc.)

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II. DEFINITION OF CONDITIONS

1. Map Of The Area

2. Selected Path Parco Via Morgagni, a 750 m linear park situated between Città Studi, Porta Venezia and Zona Buenos Aires in Milan.

3. Research Question “What are the various perceptions and types of park-pedestrian dynamics generated by Parco Via Morgagni in Loreto?”

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4. Definition Of Sample PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS #

Nationality + Gender

Age

Relation to the space

1

Italian male

early 40s

nearby resident walking home

2

Italian female and child

mid-30s

accompanying her 5-year-old son to the playground

3

Italian female

early 50s

nearby resident returning home

4

Latvian couple

mid-20s

tourists

5

Italian female

late 40s

en route to the grocery store

6

Italian couple

late 50s and early 60s

taking a leisurely stroll

7

Group of 3 Italian males

early 20s

just passing through

8

Italian male

early 20s

nearby resident smoking with friends

9

Italian male

mid-20s

new resident in the neighbourhood (recently returned from Manchester) walking a friend's dog

10

Italian male

70s

nearby resident cycling around on a bike (for leisure only)

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Italian male

60s

nearby resident walking his dog

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Italian males

Early 20s

nearby residents returning home from a wine bar

13

Portuguese male

mid-20s

just passing through

The first batch of commented walks was carried out on Saturday afternoon, 24th of March, between 13:00 - 14:00. The temperature was 22°C, clear skies, humidity 29%, no wind. The first 7 samples were taken that day.

The second sample was executed on Monday evening, the 1st of April, from 23:00 to 01:00. The temperature was 10°C, few clouds in the sky, humidity 31%, a slight wind. The remaining 6 walks were covered that day.

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III. COMMENTED WALKS The Park As An Interlude [Passing]

“It's only my third time visiting the park. I only pass through it - I only use it to cross from one point to another. I come from Portugal and in my city, parks are smaller and much more well-designed, so I didn’t really have a great first impression of this place when I initially found it.”

“We use this area as a transition space from one part of Loreto to another. This is the only known cycle path in this area - it connects Loreto, Citta Studi and the city center. We are actually heading home now and we always pass through here, but we don't normally stay.”

“We use it as an alternative to Corso Buenos Aires. There is much less traffic here and you don’t feel you are walking in between buildings. We use the Cycle path to go to another bigger park, Indro Montanelli” “This place can best be described as a "crossing". An element used to just get from one point to another.

Although, I do think the park could be better designed to allow a continuous visual of the length of the path, especially at night. Especially in the areas that are not very well-lit, just to inspire a bit of confidence and feeling of safety in walkers. Particularly for women walking home alone.”

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The Park As A Sanctuary [Staying]

“This place doesn't feel like a park; it feels like a garden… almost like a little green lung for passeggiata.”

“I don't really bother going to other parks anymore, just this one. It’s got cycling paths and I like biking around the area. I’ve rarely seen it empty. There’s always people passing by every now and then. Some even come here to play cards. It’s a calm area, it feels very tranquil. Lots of young people come here too, but I don't really mingle with them. Right now, the weather is cool and pleasant.

Milanese summers are always swelteringly hot. Luckily for us, we have lots of green spaces like this one. During this time of the year, it's not very green yet, but just wait till summer arrives.”

“Here in Milan the parks don't have profumo. You're surrounded by trees and plants all the time but you

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cannot smell anything! Other parts of the city smell horrendous, but here in the park...there are no scents.”

"Here there is a strong presence of green. Now it is not so verde, but wait until it is summer!"

"Thanks to the density of the trees here, the park has a lovely shade during in the summertime. In other parks, the trees are more dispersed and separated from one other - that’s what makes them less attractive."

The Park As A Habit [Staying]

“I live close by and so I come here often. You won’t always find me in any particular spot, of course...however, I always find myself returning to this place because of its beauty. Afternoons and early evenings here are the best!”

“I come here to walk my dog every day since I live in the area. I see old people, kids and dogs use this park.

Sometimes I come here just to walk by myself. I come to the park at different times of the day.”

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The Park As A Community Place [Gathering]

“We come here in the evenings for the vino at a nearby enoteca. We like hanging out here because there's not a lot of noise...it's calm, there's pleasant lighting. I don't know if we can really classify this place as a park though.”

"It feels as if park is divided into three parts: an area for young children, one for elderly citizens and another one where young people like to hang out."

“Old people come here too. Mostly it's a good space for children and adolescents...but they do not respect the space back. They vandalize park furniture and leave trash lying around. These teenagers go out into the streets to protest about climate change but then they litter in the park!”

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The Park As A Shell Of Lost Potential

“This park feels wasted, underused and not well-treated, nor well-maintained. I don't find this park that pleasant, it is only pleasant to look at, but not to “experience” or really to be in. The design is not very coherent. There was probably an intention to plant big trees to give an impression of a large 19th century park. This feels like a park that was created simply to satisfy a specific class of people.”

“Milan has a lot of green spaces so it's practical to have parks like this one. I used to live in the UK and the parks are typically cleaner and more well-maintained.”

“It isn’t pleasant to be in a park in the middle of all these cars.”

“We ended up here because we looked it up on Google Maps and thought there would be way cafés and people in the area. We’re actually a bit disappointed...this place is quite barren and less green than we expected.”

"It makes me want to cry seeing little children carelessly playing in the middle of the traffic in this place!”

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IV. FROM LOST POTENTIAL TO A CONTEMPORARY PARK The work carried out highlights three main uses of the park, as well as several issues that prevent a fulfilment of these potentialities for the place. We therefore propose some reflections about these possible transformations, which we organized in three strategies: • Enhance the green infrastructure and the leisure furniture, • Organize the overlapping mobility systems of the place (walking, cycling, driving) • Give a name and park status to the place.

These strategies aim at giving an identity to the via Morgagni, allowing its users to fully enjoy the three functions identified – passing, staying, gathering, as explained in the table below.

Enhance

Organize

Give a name

Passing Increase the density of trees to provide more shadow on both sides of the road; Improve the lighting of darker angles.

Connect the cycle paths to create a continuity for bikes; Reduce the car traffic; Improve the sidewalks; Create new crossings.

Give a name to the park and place signals to indicate it.

Staying Improve the green infrastructure with more biodiversity and design; Improve the design of playgrounds; Diversify the seating places.

Gathering Encourage active frontages and increase their visibility.

Provide a park status to the place to keep on developing it as a green infrastructure of the city.

Give an identity to the park and encourage new community activities.

Prevent informal car parking in front of buildings and the park to improve the feeling of community.

V. HOW TO DO A COMMENTED WALK? All our commented walks, except for the last one, began with the observation of passers-by and the selection of a possible respondent or “commenter”. These choices were carefully made with the intention of gathering a well-rounded view of the selected path through eyes of its “natural users”.

The bias thus raised was that of who willingly accepted to be an observer/commenter: several people refused to be interviewed as they seemed to be in a rush - space of connection - or because they did not feel like walking when chilling with friends on a bench - at night. Also, the hindrance of a language barrier made it difficult to interview homeless people. But most importantly, the ever-recurring question “But what should I say?” epitomizes the possible biases of each walk. Whereas young adults with skills in

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communication - like a teacher or a young mother - spoke freely of their perceptions and thoughts, others required an actual conversation with us during the walk to make them feel more confident, speak and sometimes examples - “you can comment on the weather, or whatever you see” - this prompted them to share more specific insights.

Lastly, some interviewees clearly appeared to have some specific thoughts about our expectations, as for the students of engineering, who picked up all the elements that in their minds we, as urban designers, would change in a possible project on the area - “this park has got too much cars, you should remove them all”. Therefore, the most significant observations of each comment appeared at unexpected moments, when people said things they assumed as irrelevant - “this park has no smell”, or “the fountains - that’s the important thing in that park” - and the commented walks’ revelations are contained in this confidence between the walker and the observer, in tiny moments when the interviewee forgets about the interview.

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VI. CONCLUSIONS As the selected path traversed by commenting respondents was so closely related to a place - the linear park- people tended to speak about the place in a very broad, general manner. We managed to catch glimpses of the varying perceptions generated by Parco Via Morgagni thus far, as an urban open space, but not how the sequence of spaces respondents were seeing affected their impressions and impacted their relationship with the space. People that were well-acquainted with the park always underlined the types of users they normally encounter and see. The buildings in itself were set on the background, scarcely mentioned whilst the users took center stage. The maintenance degree of the park was also a recurring topic, but there wasn’t a general agreement on it, some people found it dirty while others thought it was in a satisfactory state.

In general, we can conclude that when people are very familiar with a place, their perception is shaped by the collection of memories they have accumulated about that place - as such, their comments could be regarded more as a “review” of a space rather than a true “first impression”. On the other side of the spectrum, when we walked with people who didn’t know the place well, we also had to deal with the expectations they had about this type of area, typically in contrast to their own past experiences in similar urban spaces.

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