In this studio we will use the framework of critical restoration to explore the impact of tourism in the built environment. Students will work individually on a semester long-design project resulting in specific proposals for the restoration and adaptive reuse of existing tourist sites.

With our cell phone cameras, facebook and other miscellaneous (social) media, we capture and consume architecture for pleasure and curiosity. But all of this sampling is more than just a meaningless collection of virtual data. Its dissemination and decontextualization creates new narratives, parallel realities that have power over architecture. As eloquently described by Superstudio’s Salvages, in many cases what matters “is not so much the physical reality […] but rather the metaphysical idea of a mythical land whose reality has become a legend”.

What role does the tourist have in the maintenance (or destruction) of our built environment? How should architecture mediate between the growing visitor numbers and our new icons? Architectural interventions, big and small, can alter the way a site is perceived. This is particularly relevant with tourism or sites that are visited by hundreds of people on any given day.  The studio will therefore examine different forms of organized tourism and the impact it has on our built environment.

According to the World Tourism Organization, tourism in every continent has practically doubled over the last 15 years — growing 7.0%  and welcoming more than 1.3 Billion tourists last year alone, the highest increase in decades.

While international travel continues to increase, mass tourism has established itself as one of the most lucrative industries, capable of sustaining entire national economies. From cheap airline tickets, virtual search engines like Airbnb and Kayak; to google-translate and travel blogs reporting on train schedules and toilets in remote places; the experience of travel has completely transformed over the last decade. However this is just the beginning. As the population of emerging economies like Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRICs) rise into the middle class and leisure time becomes available, the growth of tourism will explode to new levels.

Tourism infrastructure can become a catalyst for the creation of new social and economic value. Tourists have a big role to play in the present and future of our built environment, often contributing (unknowingly) to the survival or destruction  that which they cherish and defining the politics and development of a place.

From Supertudio’s salvages to CyArk and Faktum Arte’s replicas and UNESCO’s conservation project, this studio will seek to explore the politics and material challenges of the preservation practice. We will read and discuss preservation theory and work with different surveying techniques to document and analyze existing tourist destinations. Paying close attention to material qualities and looking for lessons on construction techniques while reflecting on the architectural ambitions of previous authors and the context that fostered those projects.

Later in the semester participants will be asked to develop a proposal restoring a given site. Large scale models and elaborate drawings will be important tools to develop the architectural nuances of each of the projects.

Essential to our studio will be, of course, exercising the role of the architectural tourist. Thus, we will have a field trip to Hong Kong, involving walking tours, participating in local events and visiting contemporary practices and examples of restoration projects.

This will be a parallel studio run in conjunction with Hong Kong University (HKU). On our study trip, we will work in the HKU campus, where we will hold our mid-reviews and to participate in local events. (Further details regarding the collaboration and program with HKU will be provided at the beginning of the semester.)