The nature walks: Speculative cartographies and artificial intelligence to design experiential futures

Abstract

Walking is a way of intervening in space without leaving physical marks. While walking, the city and nature also interfere with our creations. Walking implies slowing down, stopping. When walking, we consider the value of time and the impermanence that surrounds us. Our feet allow us to discover, imagine, and explore. The foot is the foundation of all movement and the beginning of a new design approach. This communication explores a pedagogical proposal conducted with first-year design students at a university in
Barcelona. Through the act of walking, the workshop aimed to promote a speculative intervention in the area of Collserola Park to reflect on the memory of a forest in the city and envision what can be imagined in the territory in 100 years. As a methodology, each student chose a specific area of the park to act upon, draw- ing sensory maps of the space based on their wandering experience, devel- oping hypotheses through speculative design, and using artificial intelligence tools to create models and future design possibilities. As a result, the projects materialized in inhabitable spaces and relational objects proposed from affective experiences with the place, which also generated utopian and dystopian contributions for future human and non-human generations.