Commented City Walk Report Group 19
Selected Path The center of Milan has always been the representative place of the city, a union of cultures and different people that collide in one place, creating a heterogeneous mixture that gives life to the perfect place for the study related to this project. We, as group 19, decided that the Cathedral square would have been the starting point of our route; after taking a look at the Vittorio Emanuele Gallery, would have continued along the homonymous avenue towards Piazza San Babila. Here, continuing the route, one would have arrived at Via Montenapoleone, a sort of internal microcosm in the center of Milan. The viewpoint from the steps of the Cathedral overlooking the square is impressive, a continuous movement of people interacting with each other but at the same time ignoring each other, colors and scents are a show for two of the five senses. I mean, there is a very strong attractive force in the middle of this square. It’s truely attractive, it really catches the eye. Here, you really feel like you’re in the city. Taking two steps towards the Gallery the atmosphere changes completely, passing from the dispersive confusion of the square to a more concentrated one where it is hard to listen to one's thoughts. In the days with many people you can hear everything and nothing at all because you can’t actually understand anything or distinguish things. Returning to the light of the sun towards Corso Vittorio Emanuele the smell of food coming out of the restaurants adjacent to our path accompanies you throughout your walk and during the evening the neon lights of the various shops attract people like moths to the light. The people we interviewed consider this area mostly as a passage rather than a real terminus of their journey, and so do we. Piazza San Babila is in the middle of our journey, a turning point that leads people to consider it a means to reach other ways or a term to rest or wait before going to work. Usually less populated than Piazza Duomo, during the “Design Week” in which we did our reconnaissance, it housed many people, both Milanese and tourists, busy adapting to Milanese chaos. Here we interviewed many people, someone going to work, others just waiting for someone. Near this place there is the famous Via Montenapoleone, one of the most known routes of Milan and the ending point of our journey. We choose this way mostly because the variety of people you can find here, from rich tourists to simple people who admire the luxury shops that stand out along the entire length of the street.
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Basic methods of the research The goal is to precisely identify the conditions under which the phenomena described by the passers-by emerge. In order to do this, we do things as follows: 1. Visited the research area 4 times (2 times within design week, 2 times not), followed and interviewed 26 people. The ordinary descriptions provided by these people are what constitute the basic corpus for the analysis. 2. Reconstuct the route and show the important node with people’s feelings on the map. 3. Edit the video and recordings into a micro film (the linkof the film is at the end of the report） 4. Research of the physical condition of the area and get the conclusion.
General impressions of the area and the possible causes As we analyzing the basic corpus from the interviews, we extract the words that people use to describe the ambience of the place and divide them into groups, and we find it interesting that people from different backgrounds may use opposite words when describing a same place, and. Here are the words that appears frequently: Crowded, Full of People, Tourist Lively, Interesting, Variety Boring, Repetitive, Less Fun Part of Milan Beautiful, Historical, Cultural Luxury, Expensive, Rich, Commercial These words express people’s general impressions of the area. For Vittorio Emanuele Ⅱ street (From Duomo to San Babila), whether it was a tourist or a local resident, not surprisingly, the most frequently used words are “crowded” and “tourist”. Indeed, almost every interview even included these two words or similar expressions. “The recurrence and redundancy of similar comments from different observers is proof of a certain perception community.” But it is worth mentioning that, different observers have entirely different opinion on this fact. For most of the locals we asked, they don’t like this kind of tourist attraction crowded with tourists. “I like Milan but not in this period of time (during design week) because there are too many people.” “Too many shops, it's too commercial,” “It's quite crowded during the weekend, especially under the arcade, there's little space there. … Mostly on weekends, but otherwise the arcade is fine.” Others, mostly nonnatives, hold different attitudes. When asked about the reason, they explained that people from different countries and backgrounds gather here every day, forming a diverse environment which they prefer. For instance, an Italian guy who wants to start a new career comes here to search ideas, “… Today I'm searching ideas, I'm looking people, I think Milan is a good place … For me, it's a street of ideas, I like a lot to observe the behavior of people.” 2
An overseas student also says, “It's crowded but it's cool, because you can see many stores, many people doing stuffs, you can see every kinds of people from different countries.” In regard to the purpose of coming here, we found that almost every tourist would include piazza del duomo (square of the cathedral) as a necessary destination in the travel list due to its central role and high awareness in Milan. As a result, the streets and other squares around duomo also become places for tourists to hang out. Meanwhile, duomo as a landmark also plays a role in the arrival of the locals. A Chinese man who works in Milan says “When I arrange to meet friends on weekend, we often say ’see you at duomo’.”
Characteristics of the places that influencing the experience As mentioned before, it’s a busy and crowded route. However, different part of the route has its own characteristics, which gives people different feelings and experience during their walk. A. the beginning of the Vittorio EmanueleⅡstreet It is a node and also the entrance where people enter the cathedral square from the Vittorio EmanueleⅡstreet. When walking along the street, everyone could see the spire of the cathedral at the end of the street, and it draws people forward. And as soon as people walk through the narrow linear space of the street in the shadow of the buildings on both sides and reach this enlarged node where the street opened out into a small square, they could suddenly see the huge body of the cathedral in the sunlight, which brings a strong visual stimulation. Quite a few people stop here briefly to take photos or admire the magnificent architecture. Many people regarded the cathedral and the buildings around it as the most impressive part of the route, which is not only attributed to the charm of the architecture itself, but also related to the visual impact produced at this special space. People coming out of the subway station exit on this node also experience this kind of visual impact. “The Cathedral when I walk out from the metro.” (The answer from an Italian student when asking about the most impressive part of the route.)
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B. the space of the Vittorio EmanueleⅡ street 1. the architectural space One of the characteristics of this street is that the buildings on either side have colonnades on their ground floor. The colonnades stretching from the buildings around the cathedral square to the end of this street. Although colonnades of each building differs in the pillar style, color, material, etc. This kind of special structure forms a continuous semi-outdoor space between the huge glass windows of the ground floor stores and the outdoor street space. During the walk, many people realized this kind of particularity of this space. “It's quite crowded during the weekend, especially under the arcade, there's little space there. And especially on the sides there are some cafe tables and things like that that would get in the way, so I would prefer to go outside in order to walk faster … I would only walk on both sides if it is raining, and you can also see the shops and walk into the ones you are interested in when you walk in the middle.”
2. stores on either side of the street The comments on the stores on either side of the street were more dramatic. They are mostly luxury stores and high-end restaurants. People of relatively higher socio-cultural status comparatively uninterested in this kind of stores. An architect from London and his daughter commented, “I think it's the same for all commercial districts, you know, this is the less fun part of Milan, it's the same shop that you see in most large cities, it's not bad, it's just very generic. If you go to the side streets, it's authentic.” “Maybe some independent shops, not all international shops. Independent bakeries, locally Italian restaurants instead of the places that are everywhere around the world.” Three girls who work in a furniture company also don’t like these stores due to the price of goods, 4
“We saw many stores, we visited some of them, it feels expensive for us.” “Maybe some reachable shopping centers, more affordable, because all of them are expensive. Maybe also some cafes, we can't find anywhere to drink coffee or go to toilet,” As you can see, there are quite a few people who just hang out here without consuming. One of our interviewees who wants to start a new career thought this kind of phenomenon is quite interesting, “I feel interest. People is so different, interested in this street but also not interested, you can walk without take a look at these stores or you can go shopping or take a coffee or eat, it's a strange street.” 3. the pavement of the street Pavement can create atmosphere and bring vitality to space. The pavement material of this street is stone, which is different from the roads mainly for cars . “… the pavement here is stone road, walking on it feels good and it's suitable for hanging out.”
C. auditory sense on the move The street is a place full of different voices. Music can be heard almost all the way from cathedral square to Piazza San Babila during the busy period. A busker who plays music can be seen at a certain distance. In order not to interfere with each other’s play, the buskers always keep a certain distance from each other. Each busker is surrounded by a group of audience, with the loudness of the music, people need to amplify their voices to communicate with each other. Meanwhile, malls such as Rinascente were also playing music, but were drowned out by the sounds on the streets and could only be heard close by. 5
D. Piazza Liberty and Piazza San Carlo Different from duomo, the pulsating center of the city, Piazza Liberty seems another scene. The square is behind the buildings facing the street, you can enter it through two alleyways so that some of the people may even didn’t notice it at all. There is a modern fountain in this lovely little square, several people sitting on the steps and listening to the sound of water peacefully. Here, instead of speaking loudly, people just sitting and working at the laptop or reading a book. Similar for Piazza San Carlo, it’s a small square in front of the San Carlo church. There are no place for people to sit, so they just sit on the base of the pillars and have a rest for a while. When being asked about the most impressive part of the route, local people show preference for this kind of little squares, “Piazza Liberty, the fountain is nice.” “Piazza San Carlo, it's more larger, not very crowded.”
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E. Piazza San Babila Piazza San Babila is located at the intersection of the road, where there are also subway entrances and shared bicycle parking places. It is the node where the traffic is concentrated, and the sound of cars on the road and the chatter of pedestrians can be heard. In the center of the square is a square pool, with flower beds and a small pool arranged symmetrically on the north and south sides. Both the large and small pools are still pools without any sound of running water. The perimeter of the square is used as a space for pedestrians, and the open space around the two pools inside the square allows people to stay. From time to time, people stop to watch and take photos by the side of the big pool. There are also several people sitting on the side facing the pool by the flower bed on the north side. Sometimes, there are buskers performing here.
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A video based on our work: https://youtu.be/f-73Pas89oU
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Reconstruction of the Routes
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