The design of a visitor education and research centre for Sutherland, Western Cape

- Du Toit, David Jacob Johannes

Title
The design of a visitor education and research centre for Sutherland, Western Cape
Creator
Du Toit, David Jacob Johannes
Subject
Visitors' centers -- South Africa -- Western Cape -- Designs and plans Visitors' centers -- South Africa -- Western Cape
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Type
Thesis
Type
Masters
Type
MArch
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10948/38934
Identifier
vital:35014
Description
The modern visitor centre evolved rapidly with the world wide growth in tourism and its significant contribution to local economies. This new building type has provided many new opportunities for architects to work on small to medium size building with a greater meaning attached to them. However, architects would now have to deal with the problems that tourists bring! How must architects incorporate local history, culture and memory? The visitor centre is the combination of the local tourism office and museum. This new type of building is a combination of those formerly distinct building types which had two separate and different functions. “gateway building” The contemporary visitor centre combines the distribution of tourist/visitor information with the interpretation of particular regions. This interpretation of cultural and natural history links the visitor centre to the local history museum, however whereas local history museums often struggle with expanding collections, limited resources and low visitation levels, visitor centres have been able to attract greater government funding. The media of interpretation also differs dramatically, with visitor’s centres often using multimedia technology to enliven cultural history or educational displays. However they can also suffer from static displays which having been viewed once, discourage repeat visits. What is a contemporary visitor centre? Figure 1: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. Showing centre as “icon” building. This interpretation role of visitor centres has resulted in them becoming a major focus for visitation. The must-see status of these buildings is often pursued through dramatic form. Briefs for visitor centres often demand an “icon” envisaging that the building will itself, become a marketable destination. Buildings that try and become destinations in themself often run the risk of not promoting the area or location but rather them self. Visitor centres can therefor contribute to the transformation of destinations in both positive and negative ways. They can either help with economic, environmental and cultural revival of regions or they can be involved in changing places and overshadowing the very features they are meant to enhance.
Format
126 leaves
Format
pdf
Publisher
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
Publisher
Faculty of Arts
Language
English
Rights
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
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SOURCE1 1.pdf 4 MB Adobe Acrobat PDF
SOURCE2 Architectural Issues 1 MB Adobe Acrobat PDF
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