Narrative City: Latin American Home-City Landscapes in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Abstract
Storytelling lies at the center of cultural production and exchange. In smaller immigrant
communities without dedicated cultural infrastructure and established networks of
gathering spaces, oral storytelling functions as the dominant medium for the formation of
‘home-spaces’ in the city. Three conversations with established Latin American immigrants
in Halifax, Nova Scotia explore ‘home’ across domestic, public, and commercial space.
Using the oral chronotype, mapping, collage and spatialization translate time and space
across digital infrastructures, the built environment, and oral narratives into speculative
design proposals grounded in the storied and subtle imaginary. Storytelling is imagined as
a subversive design practice, bringing forth liminal histories of the city to provide alternative
contextual readings of place, materiality, and human behaviour.