Narrating collective meanings through tangible artifacts and immersive spatial experiences

Nolo Situated Vocabulary (SV) explored the transformative power of language in participatory design, fostered civic dialogue on the needs, challenges, and potential of the Nolo neighbourhood. By engaging local expressions, it facilitated the co-creation of future scenarios and collective actions, amplifying marginalized voices, often excluded from decision-making processes. This chapter focuses on the project’s exploratory approach to testing and developing different formats. Particularly, it examines Nolo SV through three main narrative artifacts – physical booklets, online podcasts and hybrid events – highlighting how these distinct formats were used not only document linguistic interpretations, but also reframe them as performative experiences, prompting new interactions and regenerative social processes. From written definitions to oral translations and immersive spatial installations, Nolo SV materialises a plural, evolving lexicon of place-based forms of knowledge. The final reflection aims to understand its communicative and experiential dimensions, bridging audio narratives and spatial design as collective knowledge platforms.