"La carte est la mémoire et l'anticipation de mon trajet"

Passatges bcn

Project: URBAN PROMENADES, a new way of discovering the city
Author: Sandrine Herbert, graduation project, in partnership with Hot City Luxembourg
Location: Luxembourg 
Year: 2008

A NEW WAY OF DISCOVERING THE CITY

Urban Promenades is a service that offers a new way to explore the city.

The aim of Urban Promenades is to get the city, its city-dwellers and visitors together within an open platform of communication. The service promotes the identity of the city.

Urban Promenades is based on an augmented signage, a recognisable sign in the street, which enables to access to information directly in the street. Every point of signage is a WiFi-tag, a chip containing digital information (related to the city cultural agenda - event, date, location). 

Thanks to the mobile phone the owner sees the information contained in the point of signage. Following the example of the augmented reality, the interface of Urban Promenades lets the information linked to the points of signage appear on the ground.

These points of convergence between digital city and tangible city are positioned strategically. They contain different information corresponding to the local environment.

• Augmented signage : the interface between the tangible city and the virtual city

• Urban Promenades augmented signages display local content about cultural activities and events happening nearby.

DO WE REALLY NEED A CARTOGRAPHICAL HYPER PRECISION WHEN DISCOVERING A NEW TERRITORY? 

The interface of Urban Promenades is based on a city map with a digital compass overlaid. 

Contrary to the GPS which constrains and limits to a unique route, the compass suggests a direction. It encourages the user to discover a new territory by navigating from one point of information to the other in a free way.

PUBLISH YOUR PROMENADES, SHARE YOUR MAP

The user can also save the information and comment on the map  at any time of the walk.

This digital logbook is immediately and automatically stored on the server of Urban Promenades. Consequently, it is shared and visible by any user of the service, either on  the mobile phone or the computer, before, while and after the visit to the city. 

So every person can mark the steps of their journey and enrich it with walks from other passers-by. The city map is progressively enriched thanks to the wanderings, discoveries and activities from visitors as well as citizens. 

Urban Promenades reveals a part of the social and cultural life of the city through this new use. This medium emphasises the traces of personal activities within a common territory.

"La carte est la mémoire et l'anticipation de mon trajet."

Jean-Loup Rivière Cartes et Figures de la Terre

(The map is the memory and the anticipation of my journey)