Identity & Function Walking Audits

  • Structured walks carried out in a specific place to define which elements are most important to its identity and function. The walking audits look at both tangible and intangible qualities of place and are best carried out by locals who understand how the place changes over time.

  • Identity & Function Walking Audits draw on the principles of Citizen Planning and Citizen Science. They make use of local knowledge, observation and documentation to gather broad and robust place-based data.

    The method focuses on what urban theorist Jane Jacobs described in the 1960s as the particulars of a place - the specific features, assets, rhythms, patterns and dynamics that are often best understood by people who have experienced a place over time and understand what makes it tick.

    The method can be used by residents, community groups, councils, businesses, researchers and practitioners.

    Identity & Function Walking Audits form part of the broader Identity & Function methodology.

  • Because places exist in 4 dimensions they can’t be fully understood as flat photographs or maps, or even as 3D objects. Its only when observed over time that the elements of a place can be properly observed.

    These elements consist of objects, spaces and dimensions that can be mapped in 2D or 3D. They also include rhythms, routines, dynamics, relationships, details and patterns that exist within or between these elements, and which are much harder to observe without spending significant amounts of time in a place.

  • Walking audits provide a structured way to define and understand these qualities in order to make decisions about the future of places.

    They explore questions such as:

    • What makes this place itself?

    • What are the most important functions of the place?

    • What are the physical elements of the place that are important to the function and identity of the place?

  • Step 1: Bring together people who share an interest in a place.

    Step 2: Decide what question, issue, quality or function of place you want to examine. Select the area, route or site you want to investigate.

    Step 3: Complete a structured walking audit.

    Step 4: Review and moderate the walk data with other participants.

    Step 5: Submit photographs, maps, scans of paper audits and observations.

    Step 6: Review the Data Rollup Report created from your submitted walk data.

    Where audits form part of a larger research project, anonymised walk data may also contribute to an Identity & Function Assessment or Study.

  • Participant: Join a walk organised by a local group or project team

    Host: Organise and facilitate a walking audit for a local club, organisation or group

    Research Partner: Run a series of Walking Audits to inform a larger Identity & Function Assessment (IFA), Identity & Function Study (IFS) or place-based project.

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

- Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Get Involved

Take a Walk

Get a small group of people together and take a walk around your neighbourhood or a local place that you care about. Allow 30-90 minutes and follow the steps in our app below.

Host or Join a Walk

Organise and facilitate a formal Identity & Function Walking Audit with a rollup report in your town, neighbourhood or community by contacting Hello City directly.

Use IFWA for a Strategy or Masterplan

Hello City can design and support a program of Walking Audits for local government, state government, community, campus or precinct development projects. Call or send a message to discuss your project.

“City processes in real life are too complex to be routine, too particularized for application as abstractions. They are always made up of interactions among unique combinations of particulars, and there is no substitute for knowing the particulars.”

“Inductive reasoning of this kind is, again, something that can be engaged in by ordinary, interested citizens, and again they have the advantage over planners.”

– Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Chapter 22.