Since 1999, the city of Bogotá, capital of Colombia, has won nearly a dozen international awards for innovative urban planning, including the prestigious San Marco Golden Lion award, given at the 10th Venice Biennale. For a city once plagued by social disorder and crime, this represents a remarkable comeback. But how have Bogotá’s urban interventions performed for residents? This research proposal is based on qualitative methods from CRESSON laboratory (Sound Space and Urban Environment Research Centre at Grenoble’s National Superior School of Architecture). Our methodology crosses large scale and small scale. With a team of Colombian colleagues and a set of equipment, as historical and critical drafting tools, in situ methodology or multi-media urban transects, this research seeks to experience and describe Bogotá’s prizewinning park, a public library area, and a main central avenue from the perspective of the people who use them daily. The result provides not only a critique of what has been done but also insights for future planners and architects tasked with reshaping the world’s growing cities.