Disneyfication
Patricio Nusselder 1st Sem.Spatial Design Depopulation Marete A. Mollerup & Jens Overbye Autumn 2014
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Table of Content
context
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data
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method
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plan
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Abstract The Historic centre of Tønder as a Simulacra. Today Tønder could be devided in two parts: the inner historic centre and the outer “new” Tønder. The outer part is a residential area while the inner part is commercial, dominated by an augment in turist oriented services and a reduction in specialized services for the people in Tønder. In order to attract tursits, aspects of Tønder’s rich history are higlighted. When this is done the authenticity of Tønder’s history becomes subject of commercial preferences and loosens from the town’s contextual identity becomming a commercial cover, a mere attraction for turists looking for an image of authenticity and tradition that responds to their expectations. The dependance of culture on commercial preferences is the disneyfication in the historical area in Tønder. Extreme cases of disneyfication happened in a lot of historical urbanizations in the United States, such as the “Colonial Williamsburg” in Virginia and “New Salem” Illinois and leads to a loss of the spirit of a place and of cultural identity: turning a place into a non-place. For Tonder’s history to be commercially exploitable yet identifiable for the habitants requires the Old center to diverse what it consideres core values and communicate them to the visitors. To rely on more aspects than just the historical ones. 7
C context
Location
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500 m
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Atmosphere
Tønder is a old town situated in Southern Jutland. It was founded in the thirteenth century. It has an important history as a Harbour town. In the 15th century it lost direct contact to the sea due to the building of dikes to prevent severe floods. Most buildings in the historic centre date from the 17th and early 18th century, during this period Tønder experienced a rapid growth as a result of its lace industry. Its location close to the sea, the German border and natural parks seem to be key elements for its identity and history.
“An iconic town” 12
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People
For the people that where interviewed for this project Tønder was currently in a social decay: the old lady said that people where only leaving and not comming back, that Tønder was like one big family but a family falling appart and she expressed her worry on this. The younger woman was a entrepeneur, she worked hard to keep her business running against the “cheap german supermarkets”. She loved the small scale athmosphere in the town and agreed on the growing emptyness but she was very optimistic saying that this could also be a big opportunity for creative small businesses which would attract young people and florish the town.
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d data
Place vs Non-Place
The key terms and starting point for my research are the concepts of antropological place and non-place introduced by Marc Auge in “Non-places: introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity”. Auge refers to as “place” spaces where humans can relate to in identity, relations or history: places of memory. Spaces that relate to their enviroment, that correspond to their place in time, enviroment and people. “Non-places” are spaces created to be used, and that is it. It is deatached from time and location, it sets the user in a continous reminder that he is at that certain location fulfilling a certain function. These places are born out of globalization, out of the need to homodify the world in order to make universal systems of consumption possible. Examples of non-places are airports, supermarkets, highways, the internet... It is thus quite obvious that in little towns as Tønder where the Genius Loci
has such a presence as seen in the athmospherical pictures and where a local identity is based on community connexions and and supermodernity has not yet seemed to have a great influence very interesting tensions appear with the placement of supermarkets and a generalized used of the internet. 23
310 out of 7800 left in past 8 years
Population
In the modern world local / global tensions infuse all places. But this does not signal a loss of “place� any more than it is a loss of identity. Rather it is the end of the closed local place; the romantic view of the harmonious village is in many ways a nostalgic response to this loss. The importance of the local place relations rests in the necessity for ontological security within a world which has been transformed by globalization. -A. Giddens Tonder is a town that has been hardly knocked by the sintomps of supermodernity: appearance of supermarkets, chain stores, the loss of governamental and educational entities... causing a loss of the local identity and depopulation to the bigger city. 25
Area and empty dwellings in Tønder
6,3km2
11%
Area and empty dwellings in Historic Center
0,3 km2
23%
Place - Identity
“New” Tønder, residential area
Ecco factory, Industrial Area
“Old” Tønder, commercial area
Germany
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For the habitants in any communiy to feel a local identity responds to the human need of ontological security: we understand our surroundings with a basic duality (what is known against what is not known) where from a border between inside and outside exists, this beeing not just a fisical duality, the wall, but a social duality too creating a hirarchy between the home and the foreign. This condition is inevitable and is, of course, closely related to place. It is thus important to first observe the different spatial clusters that are found in the town to reflect on the identity of Tønder:
“New” Tønder : Residential area for families: it has schools, public transport, elderly care centers, supermarkets relatively new built dwellings and a McDonalds “Old” Tønder : Used to be a commercial area for specialist stores but as the demand diminguishes and turism augments it is specifing more on restauration and culture. The buildings are mainly from the 17th and 18th century Ecco Factory : Main job creator for high educated people. Germany : The border is very close vreating a dualistic identity in the village. This has impact on the consumer behaviour of the habitants.
Surrounding : Mainly farmland and nature parks.
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Leisure
Groceries “New” Tønder, residential area
“Old” Tønder,
Germany
commercial area
Leisure
Evolution
A change in the local culture has taken place: Due to the increment of non-places and having Germany at a very close distance the consumtion of wholesail and retail has largely delocalised. There is no reason to buy at the comerce in the own town as it feels the same as in Germany and to buy in Germany is much cheaper. This globalized behaviour is shown by habitants in the whole of Tønder and having comerce in the historic centre (beeing as expensive as historical centres are) seems therefore almost obsolete. But in recent years the “Old” centre has replaced its functional value as resource supplier for becomming a leisure space this could have been encouraged by the delocalized identity, that, as Kim Dovey suggests in it’s essay “Dialectics of Space” strenghthens a zeitgeist of exploration for romanticised image of the past identity: spending time in the old Tønder center full of past glory, history and richness becomes a joy.
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A regular cart is
25.8%
cheaper in Germany while there is no esthetical difference
Time by car, from Tønder 8min
to the Liquorstore and Supermarket in Germany
A historical attraction “Tønder has a historic downtown that provides a unique trading
environment. Particularly pedestrian street with its many landmark houses, specialty shops and a diverse product range, is one of the main magnets for commercial life. Tønders urban and architectural heritage is a great asset to the city’s commerce. Therefore, the preservation of the special urban strengthened. (Kommuneplan 2009-2021).
There is a continous growth in turism in South Jutland. The municipality of Tønder offers turists a wide arrange of leisure activities, yet in the town the emphasis is on picturing Tønder’s
historical heritage and retail facilities “attractive even for people south from the border” (Kommuneplan 2009-2021).
Having a attractive historical heritage is for “Old” Tonder a key ingredient for its commercial succes. “Old” Tønder’s historical aspects are seen by the municipality and therefore presented as essential for the attraction of locals AND for the attraction of turists. It’s prosperity is dependent of its historical legacy.
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Historical identity
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Buildings
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Folklore
Tradition
2004: 2.5 million
Amount of turism per year in southern Jutland
2014: 3.7 million
610.000
150.000 J
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J
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Turism per month in South Jutland
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O
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Dependency
Eric Gamble and Richard Handler wrote in 1995 an essay on the commercialization of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. This privatly owned cultural heritage site where they recreate a colonial age athmosphere was completely dependent on its historical value. It would balance between populizing thus subjectivizing history (highlighting patriotism or ratial segregation...) because of it having to remain profitable and conserving objective authenticity. This case is an example that as soon as history becomes a important economic variable for a location it becomes subject of changes and adaptations in order to become more attractive. As we said earlier for “Oldâ€? Tønder history has indeed become a main variable and therefore the content of its history (the identity, the athmosphere) of the center becomes intrinsicly bound to its commercial purpose.
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Disneyfication
The authenticity of historical legacy is very vulnerable when subject to the influence of comercial purpose. When a heritage has as main function to entertain visitors, to take them to another idealized world it will have to adapt aspects of its original identity , higlighting some and diminguishing others to fit in the romantisized expectations of the visitors that in the case of Tønder are not only the turists but also the visitors. The folklore becomes a facade for entertainement, a fairytale, a Simulacra. This situation can transform a neighbourhood into a Tivoli or a Disneyland (Gamble & Handler): a hypperraility, a place that fulfills our desires better than reality does, a dream (Umberto Eco). But at the other hand destroys it’s Genius Loci, its spirit, the character it gives to the habitants. The identity of Tønder is not safe in a exploitive enviroment where tradition is comercialized and makes puppethouses out of the standing buildings. The urban enviroment is destablilized.
Parisian neighbourhood in Disneyland Paris: completely fake but it is more tipical Parisian than Paris itself. Hyperreal.
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m method
Brief - Concept
Old Tønder is a space for leisure, for foreighner and inhabitant and it is stated in the Marketing Plan from the municipality that it is in their interest to promote Tønder’s broad leisure offer. The goal of my project will be therefore to create a system on a urban scale able to spread the attention of Tønder’s leisure characteristics, from mainly history to a hue of diverse options, increasing the key values the town’s center. Combining elements of wayfinding, furniture design and spatial design I want to communicate the strength points of Tønder not as a historical centre only but as a leisure centre. Moving from a exclusive visual identity to a inclusive one (see picture to the left) The streets are the storytellers of a town. Street signing, urban furniture, sculpture, aspect of the street like distance, pavement, viewing angle on buildings... it all creates a narrative, a play on the perception of the user and leaves a mark in the memory of the user, a visual identity. I think it is necessary to expand this visual identity of Old Tønder. I want to investgate it’s urban athmosphere, its perception play, its morphology together with a more profound research on the abstract identity of the habitants.
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LA Olympics ‘84
Deborah Sussman was in charge of managing the design-team for the ‘84 summer olympics. These where one of the few Olymics that became a huge economic succes and set Los Angeles on the map for turists around the world. For a great part due to the peculiar design approach of her: Instead of building complete new sport centres, parks, roads, etc. A labour and cost intensive approach, she decided for rebranding existing instalations in order that they would comunicate the culture and the tradition of the Pacific Rim through graphic colour and shape, making use of the widespread of the, in that time new, colour tv. Old landmarks of the city looked fresh, modern yet still keept the regional tradition and where always highlighted during the olympics because they where of course, beholding them. Deborah Sussman staged an image of LA through simple objects, structures, instalations, wayfinding elements and visual identity elements that untill nowadays endures: A fresh exotic city, modern and open minded. I am very interested in her simple approach, highlighting the folklore in a modern way, creating a character for the town with very simple graphic tools.
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Supergraphics
From Deborah Sussman and the summer olympics I jump to the bigger “movement� from which her work formed part. Tipicaly Supergrapics is applying graphic design on a architectural scale. I am interested in the use of graphic design language for it beeing extremely communicative on very little material. I am interested in the architectuhral scale because of it beeing the human size, fitted for a urban project. Certain aspects of Supergrapics can therefore help me in finding a accurate visual language for my project.
Boijmans Van Beuningen interior Patio THONIK
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Objective esthetic For this project I want to develop a honest visual language towards the situation I am designing for and towards the concept I formulate. I want to research the culture of the region, make a video and abstract it into colour and shape. This system creates a authentic and honest conection to the enviroment of the project. Clarity and detailing will stand central. In the graphic at the left hand of this page are the steps I will take to get the different typologies of object I wil design. After this the design fase starts where experimentation through making will play an important role.
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Research
Concept (theme for the objects)
Cultural athmosphere (video, colour sceme)
Story
Abstraction of shape, developement of a visual language Typology for the piece: concrete framing (chair, totem, lamp) 51
p plan
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Framing
At the end of this semester I will present a alternative urban visual identity for the Historical centre of Tønder shaped as a collection of objects, final prototypes. At this moment I expect that at the end of the semester I will present a visual research on the morphology of Tønder (video), 1:5 scale models of the designed urban elements necessary to create a stable visual identity, a context model scale 1:20 showing the working of the pieces, material samples clarifying the tactility of the urban elements and the guidlines for wayfinding. The most important is that I can present a alternative visual identity convincingly, that only the actual building step needs to proceed. The most important learning focus is on how to lay a bridge between different design disciplines in order to take the best of every one of them to accurately solve a problem in a community. A honest translation of the concept into material and an attention for the detailing will also be important. Finally I want to have a design behaviour where I balance the artistical expression and pragmatical solving of the problem in a poetical way.
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Program
Fase 5 Concept presentation
Fase 4 Detailing
Fase 3 Shape, color and material
Fase 2 Designing concept and story
Fase 1 Research video
Schedule
Deadline
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Bibliography
Christian Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, (1980) Marc Auge, Non-places: introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity; (1995) Kim Dovey, Dialectics of Place: Authenticity, Identity, Difference; (2002) Eyal Weizman, Walking through walls; (2007) Rem Koolhaas, S, M, L, XL; (1995) Eric Gamble and Richard Handler, After Authenticity At An American Heritage Site; (1996) Marc Auge, Tivoli; Umberto Eco, Travels through Hyperreality; (1990) Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy, Supergraphics; (2010) Richard Poulin, Graphic design + architecture a 20th century history, (2012) Sou Fujimoto, Primitive Future; (2008) Tønder Kommune, Kommuneplan 2009-2021; Tønder Kommune, Markedsføringspolitik for Tønder Kommune; Deborah Sussman, Lecture at USC Roski, Los Angeles; https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=7deMFRjnwj4 (2014) Charles and Ray Eames, Day of the dead; (1957) Google maps; www.maps.google.dk Wikipedia: Toender; Source for graphics: Statstics Bank Denmark;