On March 23, 2017, Mike Josef presented a new medium for urban planning. With an audio walk, ‘Talk Walk’, Frankfurt and visitors will be able to find out about urban development topics free of charge during an inner city walk at 15 stations.

“The new audio walk leads through Frankfurt’s inner city to prominent places, where rapid changes and challenges are discussed,” explains Josef. “These are essentially themes that we have already named in the inner city concept and which are characteristic for Frankfurt. The talk walk brings out discussions on topics of building culture and urban development to concrete places. There are several local experts along the route. Thus, the topics are viewed from different angles.”

Frankfurt is very unlike other German cities of a similar size, as it is characterised by persistent population growth and an enormous urban dynamism. This is especially evident in the centre, where the make-up of the inner-city is presented as a result of this growth. The dynamic work ethic here also formulates goals for city repairs, as well as further exciting development of the centre.

Renowned and expert talk partners could help the success of the audio walk to Frankfurt’s city centre, which will be distributed to 15 stations of the inner-city walk. Currently on board are: Planning speaker, Mike Josef, map architect, Martin Hunscher, architects, Jochem Jourdan and Christoph Mäckler, real estate contractor, Rainer Ballwanz, pastor, Andrea Braunberger-Myers Radermacher, as well as Nils Schalk and Jörg Stellmacher-Hein from the city planning office.

The Audiowalk begins at the Opera Square. Along a route of about four and a half kilometers, and 14 further stations. Each listening station is self-contained; the walk can thus be completed in stages, if desired. The ‘Talk Walk’ was designed by walk researcher, Bertram Weisshaar, who has already designed several publicly-run green belt walks for the Frankfurt Environmental Office.

The Talk Walk can be downloaded free of charge from their website and then played on mobile phones or MP3 players: http://www.talk-walks.de. Smartphone users can take advantage of the mobile-optimised features of the website, such as a GPS map and mobile download without having to install the app.

Screenshot: talk-walks.de