Walking as a Research Method - Workshop (Deptford, London, 27.09.2025).

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“To be, I would now say, is not to be in place but to be along paths. The path, and not the place, is the primary condition of being, or rather of becoming.”

Tim Ingold, Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description (London: Routledge, 2011), 12.

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Walking as a Research Method was a collective workshop conducted by Giorgia Chiarion, Jaya Mirani, and Riccardo Rizzetto, with guest João Prates Ruivo, as part of the Centre for Research Architecture’s MA 2025 group show Reverberations public programme.

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Walking is never just a way of moving through space. It can reveal who is allowed to walk, when, and where; it exposes how power manages circulation and how racialised and neoliberal dynamics shape everyday mobility. At the same time, walking becomes a method of weaving connections, gathering traces, and paying attention to what remains — what has been left behind, or what grows along the way.

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The workshop proposed a two-hour collective activation in Deptford, starting from 20 Wharf Street. After a short introduction, participants set off on a guided walk punctuated by observations and prompts along the way. Different stops served as entry points for exploring the layered ecologies, memories, and infrastructures of the neighbourhood.

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More than sixty participants walked together — weaving stories, atmospheres, and perspectives into a shared counternarration of the city. The session concluded at St James Hatcham Church, where participants collectively assembled a countermap, layering diverse experiences and perceptions into a shared reading of the territory.

In doing so, the workshop explored walking as both a research method and a form of countermapping: a way of sensing, resisting, and reimagining the spaces we inhabit.​

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Organised by: Riccardo Rizzetto, Giorgia Chiarion, Jaya Mirani

Guest: João Prates Ruivo

Location: Deptford

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