Desire Walkgraphy: sensitive landscapes and possible worlds in architectural and urban education

Abstract

This article analyzes a set of walkgraphies produced by first-semester students of an Architecture and Urbanism undergraduate program, developed within the course Theory and History I: Architecture and Urbanism in Contemporaneity during the second semester of 2025. By articulating a pedagogical experience, qualitative analysis of images and short written narratives, and a Deleuzian theoretical framework, the paper proposes the notion of desire walkgraphy as a conceptual key to understand everyday walking as a relational practice, traversed by affects, encounters, and assemblages between body and urban space. Grounded in the concepts of desire, landscape, and possible worlds, the article interprets the walkgraphies not as objective descriptions of the city, but as situated inscriptions that produce sensitive landscapes in everyday urban life. The analysis identifies recurring themes related to trees, shade and pauses along the route, frictions and discomforts of walking, urban heritage and its interruptions, unexpected encounters, and the everyday rhythms of walking. It is concluded that photographing and writing from walking constitute formative practices capable of expanding the understanding of the city as a field of relations in continuous production.