On the 18th of October 2023, the first Exploratory Night Walk in Poland took place in Warsaw. The event was organised by the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation in collaboration with the Architektoniczki collective, thanks to funding obtained under the Miasto Otwarte project. The operator of the programme of the Capital City of Warsaw is the Inna Przestrzeń Foundation.
As one of the aims of the grant programme is to increase the number of initiatives celebrating social diversity in the capital, the Architektoniczki focused on the problem of perceiving and securing urban space in the context of gender. A lecture by representatives of the collective is planned for the end of November as part of the popularisation of knowledge among Warsaw’s citizens about feminist, anti-discrimination architecture.
Exploratory Walks are the qualitative methodological tools that allow collecting data for urban planning according to the key of inclusivity. By referring to the direct experience of diverse social groups, they enable not only an understanding of their unique needs but also of the need for architectural solutions in the spirit of equality.
The walk was dedicated to exploring the inner experiences of women moving through the city at night. The participants had the opportunity to look together at the emotions evoked while walking along the route from the Poniatowski Bridge to Nowy Świat and they analysed how we feel when we are in a certain space, focusing on the dimensions of safety, inclusivity and aesthetics of the place.
-
- fot. Pamela Bachar
-
- fot. Pamela Bachar
-
- fot. Pamela Bachar
On 23.11 the Architektoniczki held an online lecture. The event focused on discussing the demands of feminist architecture and illustrating the role of gender in urban planning using examples of the collective’s work to date. During the lecture, the female architects also summarized observations resulting from the first Night Exploration Walk in Poland.
The female architects developed a methodology to study the feelings of women in urban space, using the same comparative scale as K. Wejchert (from 0-10), who draw their subjective chart of emotions, these are:
– aesthetic feelings,
– safety,
– inclusion,
– comfort of use.
General findings
Individual categories
1. Aesthetic feelings
2. Safety
3. Inclusion
4. Comfort of use
