Keywords:
Observation | Path | Tourism | Landscape | Phenomenology | Destination | Re-establishing Connection | Perception |
Thesis Question:
How can an architecture informed by the intersection between the cultural and phenomenological lenses of landscape create a more connected and profound experience of existing tourism typologies in Shetland?
Vision Statements:
-To enhance the existing industry of tourism in such a way that will maximize the islands’ potential while maintaining aspects that make them unique.
-Utilize important cultural and phenomenological markers to create a meaningful connection between the site and the proposed intervention.
-Protect important environmental sites while providing access and education about the culture of the site and landscape to tourists.
-Enhance existing tourism types (ie. archeology, bird watching) in such a way that the experience generates new meaning and understanding thereby elevating the experience for existing tourists while attracting a new demographic.
Abstract
Gateway to the Northern Isles: Growing Tourism in Shetland Through the Lenses of Landscape identifies and seeks to utilize the inherent potential of tourism for sustainably growing the industry in Shetland.
The current economy of Shetland is based primarily on resource extraction and of that industry the principal resource extracted, oil, is a finite resource. This process of extraction and mining of resources is unsustainable for a place whose identity is so rooted in its relationship to the land. Tourism is one of the few industries in Shetland that does not involve this process of extraction and resource exploitation. Though the industry is currently in decline the islands’ intrinsic potential creates opportunities to enhance tourism opportunities and draw a new demographic of tourist to the islands. Reframing existing tourism typologies through the careful restructuring of observational methods in the form are architecture interventions can begin to generate a renewed interest in Shetland as a tourism destination.
This thesis proposes the development of an architecture for observation as a means of reshaping existing tourism typologies. The heightened observational experience generates new emphasis and understanding thereby elevating the experience for existing tourists while attracting a new demographic of tourist to the islands. The creation of these destinations seeks not only to reframe these tourist events but through the development of a series of waypoints also seeks to disperse the tourist population throughout the islands both preserving Shetland’s unique wilderness and reconnecting the northern islands. Through this system of paths and destinations the tourism industry in Shetland can be nurtured while simultaneously protecting and preserving the qualities that make the islands unique.
Example of the Implementation of an Observational Element
Refuge is both a practical and observational consideration. The wilderness of Shetland has extreme weather and providing tourists with the opportunity for shelter contributes to the accessibility of the island. Refuge in a more theoretical sense gives the observer an opportunity to ground themselves in their personal experience before undergoing new or elevated experiences which may entail being taken out of the comfort of their personal view of the world.
The following renders show the operation of the Avian Hill Pavilion as both an architecture of observation and as a place of refuge.