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.