STRATEGIC SPATIAL PLANNING OF TOURISM LANDSCAPES

Specific Foundation

Knowledge Deepening / Consolidation

The course is also offered to exchange programme students.

Students who successfully complete the course : - will have gained experience in delving into architectural and urban theory, distinguishing between the creative and the scientific approach of space and their fields of interaction and composition, and in approaching scientific texts in a critical way - will be trained in interdisciplinary methods of field research and in intercultural collaboration - will have advanced their visual and verbal communication skills of overall design proposals regardless of scale - will have expanded their knowledge in the field of tourism, cultural and environmental management of place - will sensitively understand landscape values ​​and the need to support cultural / environmental ethics in design and planning

Tourism is a set of activities of modern people around the experience of traveling. It emerges as a dynamic development issue in places and societies it influences and shapes. In all historical periods it acquires clear spatial imprints that "construct the place" in material terms and symbolically provide meanings in travel destinations. The identity of places and the quality of landscape are mutating and their future is at stake in the vortex of global flows and local rearrangements to serve the tourism industry. The results are long-term, socio-economic, environmental and cultural, but also direct on the daily lives of users, residents and visitors. In planning and place management perspectives, the issues of tourism concern all spatial scales (architecture- urban design- urban & spatial planning) in order to develop strategies. ‘Tourism’ and ‘landscape’ are central concepts under investigation in the course studio. The studio includes mindful visits, on the one hand, of architectural theory and the sciences of space, on the other hand, of real places of tourism in Greece. Between theory and practice it discusses alternatives of landscape visions and strategic planning at the interconnected scales of space, from equipment, vegetation and buildings, to residential complexes, to paths and the big picture of the landscape. Topics that are addressed concern the sustainable local development and resilience of settlements, the preservation of the cultural and natural heritage, place making and branding, gender & diversity... Special emphasis is given to the recognition of the dynamics that shape a place through different lived understandings of the local community, common perceptions and roles that go beyond scientific consideration. This year the class travels to an unrecognized area of Halkidiki. The studio course is organized as a class that studies, discusses, travels and designs! It evolves through seminars and thematic presentations by the teaching team and all students, an excursion with on-site explorations, a role play and elaboration of a strategic plan of the study area of tourism intensity (outside urban complexes). The course is integrated in the curriculum of EPICUR European University. The course language is mainly English. Attilio Torre, architect and PhD candidate at the school participates in teaching.

landscape planning, tourism, cultural landscapes, strategic spatial planning

28-09-2022