Yangtze Rivermark, for an alternative tourism and adaptive prototype

This research aims at providing new solutions to the regional planning approach by weaving a dialogue with the specific urban design “tradition” and knowledge, i.e. a large-scale vs a small-scale approach, reading and interpreting the site-specific settlement change phenomenon. The thesis, therefore, proposes a design method along the river banks and works on two levels that deserve to be highlighted: the first moves towards the definition of “cultural basin”, working on the theme of its description and interpretation starting from the progress of morphological, geographical and historical studies. The second one deals with the theme of the prototype, where the dialectic between the theoretical operational practices of engineering and architecture is expressed, with an attention to the disciplinary tradition and the possibility of defining within the design synthesis, the terms of its actuality. The prototype design is assumed as a tool for the consolidation and enhancement of periurban, rural, and urban landscapes. Therefore, it emerges the hypothesis of the project as a resource (Emery, 2007), a notion that, in the most important chapters of the project, has been taken up in depth, an architectural landscape project that becomes the instrument capable of operating an oriented synthesis between different knowledge and disciplinary skills involved. The thesis focuses to define the involved terms by making selective references within the multiple definitions of the term landscape, calling into question the studies on settlement morphogenesis. In addition, the question of the value of the artifact is addressed with attention to water architecture. This brings to the central themes that concern the operational contents of the project, in which the contribution on the development of descriptive “sections" and “sequences" is pivotal. The maps are critically flanked by the photographic reading assumed as an instrument of criticism, documentation and interpretation. With the assumption of the unstable condition of river landscapes, the final part of the discussion opposes the proposal of project strategies aimed at facing a condition of extended fragility. The instance of architecture as a component of the landscape is taken up and discussed, referring it to the dynamics of instability, disputed in the dialectic between the persistence and variability of physical assets. This calls into question the necessary integration of disciplinary skills within the design synthesis. The purpose of the research is the definition of a project methodology. As far as the multidisciplinary approach involves studies of economics, sociology, human geography, I have not tried to revolutionize a way of seeing, but I have taken a defined point of view through an extended scientific literature in the individual disciplines. In the attempt to shed more light on these aspects, the thesis maintains a judicious profile, trying to avoid ideological assumptions and proposing itself as an empirical case – or, naming it differently, a “laboratory test”, on the commonly accepted research method. The thesis, by delivering a “prototype”, implicitly sets the ground for the elaboration of new guidelines or best practices. The subjacent needs of this research was first of all limiting the scope of the topic, identifying a strong link between the field of investigation and the physical and design dimensions (the scale issue) and ensuring data comparability, and conveying a demonstrative and illustrative meaning to the chosen case study (the generalizability issue); A large scale (macro and meso) approach, also named “strategy”, intertwines the prototype design with a broad idea of heritage/settlement valorisation. Considering the significant multiplicity and complexity faced by this research, the synthesis of a new word, RiverMark, imposed itself. The latter is a new term derived from the word landmark and yet its difference lies in the plurality of simultaneous references that may be made due to the geographical features and cultural implications of a river. In the thesis, the concept of RiverMark is intended as a reference for landscape architecture or “territorial architecture” that is replicated at a large scale. On the grounds of the foregoing, the thesis stems from an opportunity given by the interweaving of two contemporary themes: the steady growth of the tourism sector in China (Tan, et al., 2001; Lew, et al., 2003; Rojek, 1997; Unn, 2011; Chris & Songshan, 2013) and the historical importance of river settlements (Ball, 2016). The convergence of said debates with the specific geo-historical reading of the river settlement allows selecting and focusing on a specific subject of research as well as developing original approaches. On the one hand, the thesis studies the emerging phenomenon of post-Communist, domestic, mass tourism and its impact on Chinese territory, traditional culture, and identities. On the other hand, instead, it proposes a proactive approach to river tourism at a more circumscribed and territorial level via three thematic themes: an in-depth study of the emerging individual and social leisure dimension and the potential discovery of the territory; an appraisal of river tourism significance and current potential; and the definition of a landscape organization masterplan and a river architecture “prototype” the RiverMark. The first part of the thesis is composed of four chapters and relative boards that represent the background research developed during the research and the proposed prototype. Indeed, it would be impossible to formulate a proper thesis without deepening and widening the knowledge of the critical topics of the background (Tourism & leisure in China, in the first chapter, and the Yangtze and its role in the Chinese history in the second one). The third and fourth chapters contain the interpretative and propositional parts of the thesis. The two chapters are schematically referred to the different “scales” of the research project but must be seen in a two-way relationship; in the third chapter, the main project themes at a territorial level were analysed, instead, in the fourth chapter, the methodological and illustrative contents that underlie the construction of the “prototype” of the landings were examined. The survey on site, helped to clarify the “scale” of the architectural prototype. In its final definition, it has not only become an object (virtual or real) to investigate the typology, the functional layout or the performance of the proposed materials and technologies, but also a “constructed device” necessary to explore the ways of the relation between idea and the built environment. Therefore, it is possible to speak of “adaptive methodology”, and it is in the degree of responsiveness of the prototype that a substantial criterion for evaluating the project can be identified. Hence, the design led to the production of some graphic representations useful to investigate and describe the formal configuration of the prototype. The second part contains: a literature review, an atlas of river ports & facilities, and a series of three surveys. The literature review helped to state the methodology, developing the main axes of the research, and illustrating the conclusion about the relationship of the different scale of design applied to river tourism and adaptive prototypes. A sort of conceptual “premise” to further development of themes that have as “fil rouge” the role of the river in human settlements and the interaction of man with the river. The Atlas includes the benchmarking of the prominent river tourism systems with their ports and urban systems, a selection of projects that concentrated on river tourism worldwide, on the basis of personal recommendations, study of current publications in the fields of river tourism, planning, landscape architecture internet research and attendance at conferences. The report of three “on field” surveys on river cruise, instead, includes three surveys along three rivers, The Nile, The Rhine and the Yangtze.