Abstract
The article explores how the act of walking, used as a tool of transportation, perception, mapping and design; transforms the face of the Earth. The study considers the practice of walking both as a necessity of survival and as an aesthetic practice that constantly (re)constructs the landscape. As humans utilized walking in order to alter their surroundings; architecture, sculpture and manmade landscapes emerged and walking became an art form in itself (Careri, 2007). In this regard, the initial part of the study is a theoretical text about walking, exploring its history and transformation from a tool of transportation to a way of leaving aesthetic marks on the Earth. In the second part, walking is presented as a method to assess the ongoing operations in northern regions of Istanbul. The primary aim is to analyse how the recently imposed transport infrastructure affects the natural form of the city from the lens of a pedestrian. A series of one-day walks, following the route of Northern Marmara Highway, are performed by the author and later transformed into a walking log. As a result, narrative records are created from varied data collected during and after the walks. These records constitute an authentic base study for understanding and designing the city. The practice of walking, always leaving an impact upon the anthropic environment, is considered to be an architectural and aesthetic act, an innate design tool. Therefore, these walks themselves are considered as minor marks and traces that are directly imprinted on Earth's surface.
