Oase #64: Landscape And Mass Tourism

The relationship between architecture and tourism has been the subject of ample research from the urban point of view, resulting in various theories about the "tourist gaze." Themes like identity and city branding are familiar to us all these days, but the relationship between architecture and the touristic landscape has thus far received much less consideration. Now that tourism is occupying the natural landscape "en masse, it is no longer possible to safeguard the ideal of pure, untouched nature. By its very definition, the touristic landscape is a construct in which cultural and functional aspects have a role. As far back as the 18th century, the experience of a touristic landscape was become a physical one; an irreversible transformation of the landscape has been the result. This edition of "OASE focuses on architecture's contribution to the structuring of mass tourism in the context of landscape, on how architecture frames the landscape and regiments the flow of tourists. A variety of interventions and strategies are reviewed, from mega-structures and infrastructure in ski resorts and Mediterranean holiday villages to nostalgic settlements in man-made miniature landscapes.