Architectural Design V-IX: Tourism Behaviorology in Switzerland (M.Kaijima)

Abstract

The tourism industry is important economic sector in Switzerland to activate the rural area for exchange between local and global. A role of architecture is creating local identity. We engage with the question of tourism architecture in Interlaken and Grindelwald with historical perspective to use image through actor-network drawing for arguments and critics in the future local context.

Objective

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. Architectural Behaviorology introduces better understanding on architectural form in the relationship with various behaviors of things, such as nature, human, and buildings. Using the core design approach of architectural behaviourology the research project advocates and demonstrates, both theoretically and in real-world practice, the significance of creating urban-rural commons to rejuvenate community livelihoods with small-scale primary industries (farming, fisheries, and forestry), taking both Asia (Japan) and Europe (Switzerland) as geographically distant yet mutually applicable and promising applied settings. Actor-network Drawing is design research platform in the chair learning from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) from Bruno Latour’s: Science In Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society (Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass., USA. 1987). It is for sharing research observations for area and to bridge them towards design practice and also finding hybrid knowledge between place(before 20 century model), space (20 century model) and network (21 century model). We are learning the hand drawing as a physical movement as digesting the gap between life and information setting real experience as our knowledge. And also drawing manner is allowing us to dialogue with history and to discuss between ourselves. How we design using resources to create and to emphasis local network to be sustain the society by learning typologies and material, skill, people. Integration of the visualization would be discussed under intention of the project to create architectural language for social context. Integration of the concept from detail of structure and material to environmental scale as architectural language. Students would consider the network of the architectural meaning from history to today.

Content

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? Week 1 2.23 9.00 Orientation 13.00 Workshop 17.30 Site selection 2.24 8.30-16.30 Desk critiques 16.30 Input lecture and text discussion Week2 3.2 7.00-18.00 Site Visit 3.3 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques(13.00-13.30 Input Lecture and text discussion) Week3 3.9 8.30-16.30 Desk critiques 16.30-Input lecture and text discussion 3.10 Parity Talks Week4 3.16 8.30-16.30 Desk critiques 16.30-Input lecture and text discussion 3.17 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques(13.00-13.30 Input Lecture and text discussion) Week5 Seminar Week Off Week6 3.30/31 8.30-18.00 Mid Review1 Week7 Easter Holiday Week8 4.13 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques 4.14 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques(13.00-13.30 Input Lecture and text discussion) Week9 4.20 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques 4.21 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques 13.00-13.30 Input Lecture and text discussion Week10 4.27/28 8.30-18.00 Mid Review 2 Week11 5.04 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques 5.05 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques(13.00-13.30 Input Lecture and text discussion) Week12 5.11 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques 5.12 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques 13.00-13.30 Input Lecture and text discussion Week13 5.18 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques 5.19 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques(13.00-13.30 Input Lecture and text discussion) Week14 5.25/26 8.30-18.00 Desk Critiques Week15 6.1/2 8.30-18.00 Final Review Mid Review 1 Assignment (dead line 3.29 17.00): Actor Network Drawing Area Size: 6 x A3 Picture Essay Text (400 words) Mid Review 2 Assignment(dead line 4.26 17.00): Actor Network Drawing Project Size: 12 x A3 containing: Plan(s), Section(s), Elevation(s) Model(s) Text (ca. 400 words) Final Review Assignment (dead line 5.31 12.00): Actor Network Drawing Project Size: 12 x A3 containing: Plan(s), Section(s), Elevation(s), Detail(s) Model(s) Text (ca. 400 words)

Resources