Panama, Casco Viejo, Casco Antiguo
Walking is something most of us take for granted. We walk from point A to B without giving much thought. But this experience hits us, the way vitamins do: you just don´t notice them, until you are out of them and get a really bad flu. When done with full awareness, you start connecting your feelings to your thoughts on why you feel the way you do when you are in places you like and places you don´t. It hits you when places get destroyed. It lifts you when places feel “right”, and somehow “thoughtful”. For the latest one, yes, probably there was a lot of thought put in them, the kind that is generated by an activity like Jane´s Walk.
So, what is it? in short is a walk with awareness of your space. Probably you´ll have someone that is an urbanist with you, as a guide on what to see, the historic contexts, so that the group analyzes by being phisically there what makes a place special, livable, great… or not.
In Panama, this simple, but yet powerful way to get a conversation started about our cities is picking up. Today, a full article was featured in La Prensa on the young architect that is organizing them for the Municipio. The article is obvioulsy about what, how, where and who, but what gets us excited is that it is happening. After so many years in Casco planting the seed for walking districts, finally, the plant has started to root and sprout.
Exciting!
