Join the Edges

Beginning with the session Join the Edges, this contribution presents a reflection on how traces can be used as design tools to reframe the relationship between people and places.Territories and the places that shape them are the result of evolving interactions between natural conditions, human settlements, and socio-cultural dynamics.Rather than fixed constructs, they emerge through historical layering, where nature and artifice, spontaneity and intentionality, continuously negotiate meaning.The identity of a place crystallises over time through three interdependent variables: the natural landscape, its inhabitants, and the material and immaterial artefacts that accumulate and interact.Understanding and communicating the identity of a place thus requires more than representing visible features; it demands a reading of the relationships between layers.These relationshipsoften intangible-are the carriers of distinctiveness and collective memory.The metaphor of 'Joining the edges' encapsulates this act of reconnection: between spatial fragments, between people and environments, between physical reality and imagined narratives.In this context, design emerges as a mediating practice capable of reweaving disjointed or marginalised elements.The contributions and projects presented at the Join the Edges session explore how design can activate traces, amplify situated identities, and facilitate immersive experiences.These traces, whether architectural, symbolic, or procedural, function as connectors-linking people to places, past to future, digital to physical, and local histories to broader cultural frameworks.Frazer's law of contact, or contagion, posits that objects once in contact retain a metaphysical connection even after physical interaction has ceased.This principle underscores the necessity of maintaining a balance between the real and the imagined, the authentic and the constructed, ensuring that lived experiences are not overshadowed by illusion or virtualization, which often commodify transient realities.The concept of 'trace', understood as a tangible or intangible marker that can activate perceptual, emotional, and narrative responses, is at the heart of a research developed in 2017, with Space spa, the INTUIT 1 project.It introduced a methodological framework for the experiential modelling of cultural tourism destinations.Traces act as hinges between reality and imagination-evocative elements that spark memories, atmospheres, and associations.In doing so, they contribute to the construction of the perceived genius loci.The project aimed to move beyond conventional tourism dynamics, shifting from passive consumption to active, immersive experience.Design played a central role as a mediating tool, used to articulate and enhance the identity of places through the definition of experiential templates.These templates were developed to respond to both pre-existing and emerging spatial narratives, using design as a means to structure and guide interaction.To analyse the complex relationship between the physical and symbolic dimensions of place, INTUIT employed a set of dichotomous parameters.Five key dichotomies were identified: 'stimulus/memory', 'sign/meaning', 'presence/memory', 'event/narration', and 'place/symbol'.Each one was conceived as a cause-effect relationship, enabling the mapping of how real-world stimuli 1 INTUIT -Immaginazione, Narrativit, Teatralizzazione dei luoghi: esperienza Utente e Internetof Things Report D1.4.