Storytelling and urban design

Abstract

Stories and storytelling can inform and condition the design of places in multiple ways. Urban designers can (1) curate the narrative landscape of a town in ways that support designers' engagement with place stories, (2) nurture a virtuous cycle of interactions between stories of place, built form, and the emergent form of a settlement, and (3) create formats for the inclusion of multiple designers and a diverse set of independent stories rather than master narratives.

Keywords:

• narrative landscapes
• places as stories
• storytelling
• urban design
• virtuous design cycles

Notes

1. Current discussions of urban design such as the Michigan debates on Everyday Urbanism, New Urbanism and ReUrbanism could be informed by examining who is telling what kinds of stories (Kelbaugh 2005). Perhaps these approaches represent different political–economic groups of authors and audiences. Likewise, examining place storytelling could illuminate the relationships between the practices of urban design, city building, and the social production of space (for a discussion of the production of space, see Lefebvre 1991, and Light and Smith 1998).