Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes |
Design Studio FS2021
Tourism Behaviorology in Switzerland
Chair of Architectural Behaviorology in collaboration with the Chair of Architectural Theory
Today’s local populations and ecologies are confronted by a raft of critical issues that have become manifest at a shared global level. A key worldwide aspect in these interlinked challenges is the dual phenomena of aging societies and the depopulation of rural areas, whereby the development of modern technology and industry in the course of the 20th century has played a huge role in triggering these problems by establishing barriers between everyday life and local resources, such as nature, human skills and accumulated knowledge. Rural communities based on small-scale primary industries, which have traditionally been vital not only in securing national food supplies but also in maintaining a sustainable ecosystem balance between mankind and nature, face a growing struggle in terms of generational succession and transfer.
Architectural Behaviorology is our design theory and methodology whose objective is to rediscover the forgotten values of resources through the lens of ethnography. It tries to find barriers and challenge them in order to create better accessibilities to local resources, and to activate the behaviors of actors, both human and resource.
The tourism industry is one of Switzerland’s most important economic sectors and employs around 4% of the working population. Tourism is also the most important driver of exchange between the rural and the urban community.
At the crossroads of Europe, Switzerland has always attracted visitors. In the 18th centuries, Romantic literature and art engendered unparalleled enthusiasm for the mountains. In the 19th century, it was discovered that high altitude fresh air had a therapeutic effect on lung disease and Swiss alpine villages began to market themselves as health resorts too. In 2015, the Swiss tourism industry generated around 2.8% of the country’s gross domestic product, or a total of CHF 17.4 billion.
Thanks to a steadily growing infrastructure network of hotels, railways, cable cars, shops and restaurants, small mountain villages are able to handle this sheer number of visitors. But what role do these infrastructures play in the appearance of the small villages and towns, sought by tourists? Strengthening the local character and creating a local identity is an important role architecture has to play in a touristic town or village. The architecture, as well as the entire tourism industry, have to keep a good balance between touristic and local aspects, between the local and global economy.
This semester we will engage with the question of tourism architecture in the case of Interlaken and Grindelwald in the canton of Bern. We will critically examine the existing context by researching its history, analyzing its actor network, and propose and argument how the two towns could be developed further. How should they look like? What should they offer? And how will the ongoing Corona pandemic and the rising temperature due to climate change affect the tourism industry in the long run?
Professor: Momoyo Kaijima
Advisor: Yoshiharu Tsukamoto
Assistants: Christoph Danuser, Sandrine Badoux,
Tazuru Harada
Language: English
Credit: 15
Integrated Discipline
A Constructed landscape
The design course is tough in collaboration with the chair for the theory of architecture. The „integrated discipline“ aims to support the students in their research. It is organised in two parts: A methodological introduction and a field research on a particular building / place. The task will be a picture-essay, that will constitute the base of the actor-network drawing.
In historical travelogues and paintings, the landscape of the Bernese Oberland is not only captured but also staged, thus creating a certain image of this place and its architecture. The tourism industry still makes use of these constructed images from the earlier heyday of tourism. Through a detailed analysis of historical sources, we work out how the different images of the Bernese Oberland were created and trace them back to their historical context, thus providing an understanding of the origins of today's mental image of the Bernese Oberland.
The wide view over the 'Eismeer' of the Grindelwald-Fiesch glacier, the panorama of the Bernese Alps with the Jungfraujoch or the outlook on the lakes of Thun and Brienz were, on the one hand, created in landscape painting and on the other hand materially constructed through infrastructures such as hiking trails, viewing platforms and mountain railways. With the development of the Bernese Oberland through tourist infrastructures, the visitors' interest in these buildings and infrastructures is also awakened and the tourists' gaze is increasingly directed towards the achievements of modern technology.
The historical-theoretical supplement of the course serves to better understand the connection between the construction of the socio-cultural image of Bernese Oberland and its architecture and infrastructure.
Professor: Laurent Stalder
Assistants: Carla Peca
Language: English
Credit: 3 |
Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte |
Entwurf, Konstruktion, Staedtebau, Modellbau, Visualisierungen, Architectural Behaviorology, Research method, Actor Network Hand Drawing |
