TITLE:
Nanotourist Strategies for Ljubljana
LOCATION:
Ljubljana, Slovenia
WHEN:
Friday, 6 - Friday, 20 September 2024
TITLE:
Nanotourist Strategies for Dresden, Germany
LOCATION:
Dresden, Germany
WHEN:
Friday, 12 – Saturday, 27 August 2022
AA nanotourism Visiting School:
Dresden, Germany
2022
The project is based on the temporary land between Elbe river and the village of Laubegast. This area is facing seasonal floods and droughts, creating a specific fragment that is over and over (again) river or land, creating a very specific micro- climate and habitat. Towpaths, so called Treidelpfade, formerly used as support paths to tow ships, are the only human- made structures meandering along with the stream of the river.
The projects intention is to keep this special area as it is, by putting the focus on the river Elbe and its rhythms. Trying to question the Anthropocene approach to our surroundings, the intervention focuses on what and how the river creates.
This is done by communicating adapted short legal texts, highlighting the importance of the rivers au-thority. Inspired by hunger stones, these texts were engraved on stones, carried by the river. The team found the engraved stones a new spot on the site. By placing them back close to the river, these stones will stay on the spot and convey their message until they get carried further.
Project team:
Baris Gör – Turkish
Ömer Gürel – Turkish
Anfisa Mishchenko – Russian
Tuan Phan – Vietnamese
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Thomas Traxler
Katharina Mischer
Jakob Travnik
Amanda Sperger
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
AA nanotourism Visiting School:
Dresden, Germany
2022
Dresden’s numerous cemeteries are part of UNESCOS immaterial world heritage, as they are places of tradition, remembrance, and play an important role in the inhabitants social life. Most importantly they offer space for cultivated greenery and gardening. Regular and seasonal change of this greenery creates a large amount of flowers and plants in rotation that simply get discarded.
The project aims to underline the specific local gardening culture, derived from the maintenance of the cemetery, while providing a new social space for exchange. The proposed intervention focuses on reusing existing discarded flowers and plants, by offering a device to store, take care and exchange them among cemetery users or passers-by. Ultimately, granting them a second life in a new context, these flowers and plants still bring joy to people and do not end up in the garbage.
Project team:
Helen Herget – Austrian
Anna Kubiak – Austrian
Filip Marcetic – Bosnian
Luisa Zwetkow – German
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Thomas Traxler
Katharina Mischer
Jakob Travnik
Amanda Sperger
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
AA nanotourism Visiting School:
Dresden, Germany
2022
The extension of the Österreicher Straße from the former village border of Laubegast to the Pillnitz Elbe ferry is called Kleinzschachwitzer Ufer. In the middle of the 19th century, it consisted of the forester‘s lodge and the neighbouring ferry house, as accommodation for the royal ferry-men. It was not until after 1860 that the development of the Uferstraße with villas and country houses was instigated.
Working with the prominent stories of Leubens villas the project manifests a rich history of pro-gressive cultural heritage while providing an insight into the hidden stories of the Kleinzschachwitzer villas. Carefully positioned viewing devices in relation to the famous villas invite passers-by to discover those hidden stories complimented with fictional storytelling when strolling down the Kleinschachwitzer Ufer.
Project team:
Beyza Köroglu – Turkish
Elena Meister – Austrian
Fábián Villányi – Hungarian
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Thomas Traxler
Katharina Mischer
Jakob Travnik
Amanda Sperger
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
AA nanotourism Visiting School:
Dresden, Germany
2022
The two banks of the river Elbe further down from the Pillnitz castle are quite contrasting: The Loschwitz bank is nowadays rather empty, used for strolls or people walking their dogs, in comparison to the opposite Laubegast side, which has plenty of attractions and hotspots that locals - cyclists, pe-destrians and recreationists enjoy due to more infrastructure available.
Rarely people engage between the two banks, besides when taking a stroll in a ‘loop’, using the two ferries connecting the sides. The quality of this duality is the performative aspect of the two sides, con-stantly being observed by the people on the opposite bank.
The projects aim is to balance out two opposing banks of the river and create an intangible connection between them – to “bridge“ – the Elbe in a new, visual way. (inter)ACT is an activity, in the form of an interactive billboard, that can not only be observed, but is rather a carrier of an everchanging mes-sages curated by the local users.
Project team:
Sara Borjanović – Serbian
Elif Sanem Özmen – Turkish
Laura Rumpl – Austrian
Dora Vitlić – Croatian
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Thomas Traxler
Katharina Mischer
Jakob Travnik
Amanda Sperger
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
TITLE:
Nanotourist Strategies for Wiener Sängerknaben, Sekirn
LOCATION:
Sekirn am Wörthersee, Austria
WHEN:
31. August – 15. September 2021
Wörthersee has 83% of its shoreline inaccessible to the public. At the same time, located on the lake’s south shore, the Vienna Boys’ Choir Summer Residence is an underused property and one of the last remaining places with an opportunity to open up for the people.
The project critically addresses the lake’s wild privatisation and the current unawareness of the cultural presence of the Vienna Boys’ Choir in the local community.
The three interconnected interventions: ‘Exchange Fence’, ‘Stare!’ and ‘Sound Cannon’, offer tools for a new cultural exchange between the Boys’ Choir community and the local general public, capable of addressing the future transformation of the Vienna Boys Choir Campus into an all-year-round cultural venue.
AA nanotourism Visiting School:
Sekirn, Wörthersee, Austria
2021
How can singing and music be spread throughout lake Wörthersee to facilitate new forms of cultural exchange between the Vienna Boys' Choir and the general public?
The lake is a shared space of the Wörthersee area inhabitants. With its acoustic and spatial qualities, it already functions as a natural sound transmitter, offering multiple experiences of sound travelling across the lake throughout different times of the day. On the other hand, Vienna Boys' Choir is internationally well known for their singing, but the lake's community is mostly unaware of their presence.
With the ambition of giving the voice to the Choir, the project imagines the lake as a sound facilitator that distributes the high cultural identity of the Vienna Boys' Choir to the local community on the lake. Fixed on the existing wooden pier of the Campus, the Sound Cannon becomes an amplifier of the local music culture, providing an interaction point between the Vienna Boys' Choir, local musicians and the public.
The horn is a kinetic, flipping device. It can either face the lake and distribute the sound to 'accidental' listeners of the lake's community or face the land to perform to an audience on the Vienna Boys' Choir publicly accessible plot. Used in new performative rituals, the Sound Cannon contributes to the soundscape of Wörthersee and allows for musical experimentation that is a long tradition of the lake's history.
Project team:
Eleonora Balestra – Swiss
Clara Copiglia – Swiss
Kanto Ohara Maeda – British
Anne Steffen – Luxembourgian
Mykhailo Zhuk – Ukrainian
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Thomas Randall-Page
Amanda Sperger
Jakob Travnik
Tutor:
Andreas Maximilian Arndt
Photo credits:
Paul Sebesta
AA nanotourism archive
AA nanotourism Visiting School:
Sekirn, Wörthersee, Austria
2021
How can a privately owned piece of property become a publicly accessible and educational interface between the lake, the Vienna Boys' Choir and the visitors?
Vienna Boys' Choir Campus is located halfway of the longest - 1.3 km long - stripe of the lake's perimeter road that offers not a single glance to the lake. Reacting to the excess of fenced-off shoreside properties that privatise the lake view, the intervention provides several alternatives. Firstly, it proposes a publicly accessible viewing platform that enables passing visitors to enjoy the lake's views from a secluded stairway by bringing the viewer closer to the water and away from the noisy road.
Secondly, as an altered exemplar of the pier typology, the project testifies about the former shoreline of Lake Wörth, which was lost in 1770 after the artificial lowering of the lake's water level. Therefore, the intervention is devoted to leisure, but it also educates visitors on almost forgotten past.
Finally, it doubles as the auditorium that can host an audience of 20 people taking part in the performance happening on the existing campus' pier. The pier and the wooden stair-like structure are axially aligned to work together as one, spatially correlating setting. Opening up the possibility of hosting a performance encourages the Vienna Boys' Choir members to stage small public events to reinforce their singing identity and relation to the Wörthersee's community.
Project team:
Anna Bernbacher – Austrian
Pia Fattor – Argentinian
Kim Gubbini – Luxembourgian
Kya Anaïs Kerner – Polish/ American
Jeremias Pointner – Austrian
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Thomas Randall-Page
Amanda Sperger
Jakob Travnik
Tutor:
Andreas Maximilian Arndt
Photo credits:
Paul Sebesta
AA nanotourism archive
AA nanotourism Visiting School:
Sekirn, Wörthersee, Austria
2021
How can the critical approach to maintenance strategies and fencing of the Vienna Boys' Choir Campus re-value its natural resources to stimulate the exchange with the neighbouring community?
The six-acre property of the Vienna Boys' Choir is full of natural resources that are carefully being maintained and manicured throughout the four seasons of the year regardless of the short period of two months when the boys are actually at the Campus. The upkeeping of the estate is regularly producing a set of natural "waste" materials, from hay, grass, shrubs and bark to branches and logs, that used to contain specific values in the local farming economy.
In an approach to sustainably resolve land management issues, the intervention looks at the Campus' residue material as a resource for stimulating neighbouring relationships through storage and trade of those materials.
Replacing the existing monofunctional and dividing fence and recognising its typology's contextual, social and economic potential, the project proposes a different type: a 'deep fence'. This three-dimensional structure still functions as a barrier to the site, which additionally operates as a storage system, storefront and marketplace of natural waste materials produced at the Campus throughout the year. The publicly accessible structure aims to stimulate new rituals of exchange and debate on seasonal maintenance routines, waste and the notion of privatisation of land in the region.
Project team:
Elias Bouyssy – French
Oliver Canins – Italian
Amanzhol Kellett – British
Iva Grlic Radman – Croatian
Mihail Sugarev – Bulgarian
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Thomas Randall-Page
Amanda Sperger
Jakob Travnik
Tutor:
Andreas Maximilian Arndt
Photo credits:
Paul Sebesta
AA nanotourism archive
TITLE:
Nanotourist Strategies for VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, 2020
LOCATION:
Vienna, Austria
WHEN:
11. – 27. September 2020
AA NANOTOURISM WORKSHOP
25. September – 4. October 2020
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK
2. October
PANEL TALK: A FUTURE OF TOURISM?
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Meidling, Vienna, Austria
How can thermal sulphur water, once the defining characteristic of Theresienbad, be reintroduced as a celebrated public resource of Meidling?
The history of Meidling‘s Theresienbad is strongly tied to the story of thermal sulphur water running under the city of Vienna from Gloggnitz to Moravia. The sulphur water springs, well-known for their healing powers, have been repeatedly lost and found throughout history, only to be rediscovered today – as a side effect of a local building site pit, pouring through the spout into the Wienfluss. Through an investigation into the sulphur water‘s role within local history, the project advocates for the preservation of its intellectual and emotional value and reintroduces the idea of this precious public resource to the inhabitants of Meidling.
Project team:
Maria Covrig – Romania
Alex Gahr – Austria
Daniel Koller – Austria
Zorana Sotirov – Romania
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Aline Lara Rezende
Amanda Sperger
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Meidling, Vienna, Austria 2020
How can wild and unregistered trees provide a new form of ‘climate literacyʼ and an alternative greening strategy for Meidling?
The project discovers and tells the stories of wild, unregistered trees which find their own way through the urban fabric of Untermeidling. In collaboration with locals – biologists, tour guides, politicians and other inhabitants – the newly found wild trees are identified and documented through an alternative narrative of their urban existence. The project sets a critical stand against the existing bureaucratic model of “urban greening” and reveals the role of self-planted trees’ within the city and their story as a legible symptom of a larger global issue – the climate crisis.
Project team:
Baran Demir – Turkey
Emma Kaufmann LaDuc – USA
Lauro Nächt – Austria
Aurora Zordan – Italy
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Aline Lara Rezende
Amanda Sperger
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Meidling, Vienna, Austria 2020
How can Meidlinger Markt offer an alternative ‘market experienceʼ to its existing and ever growing new visitors?
The project exercises the right of every Viennese inhabitant and visitor to run a personal market stall, three days in a year, by implementing this legal right at Meidlinger Markt. Investigating the specific set of rules defined by law and experimenting with site-specific implementation strategies, the project creates and offers the public a step-by-step manual of instructions to practice your own personal market. With a variety of possible assemblies of readily available market materials, the manual also demonstrates examples of its use as a temporary micro economy.
Project team:
Maria Kanzler — Austria
Barbara Krajcar – Slovenia
Ana Mumzlade – Georgia
Bana Saadeh – Jordan
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Aline Lara Rezende
Amanda Sperger
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits: AA nanotourism archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Meidling, Vienna, Austria 2020
How can passions of local communities be identified and communicated to a larger audience to discuss the role of design in everyday life?
Through a series of in-depth interviews, the project carefully investigates everyday passions of Meidling‘s local inhabitants and communicates their vivid peculiarities to the general public. Building upon the existing format of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK‘s ‚Passionswege‘, the project team utilised the tool of ‘deep dialogues’ in the exchange with local collaborators in order to share their specific knowledge and skills with the otherwise closed discourse of the design community.
Project team:
Katharina Sauermann – Austria
Martin Eichler – Czech Republic
Natasha Hromanchuk – Ukraine
Sophie Schaffer – Austria
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Aline Lara Rezende
Amanda Sperger
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Meidling, Vienna, Austria 2020
How can today’s COVID-19 reality create opportunities for visitors of Vienna Design Week to critically reflect on the notion of surveillance and control in cities?
Thinking of the inevitable queueing and possibly long waiting time in front of this year‘s Festivalzentrale due to COVID-19 restrictions, the project proposes an interactive game which critically reflects the reality of surveillance amongst its users. The game functions as a digital queueing system to remind visitors of the notion of strongly regulated public spaces. It operates as a tool for trading the unfair and randomly given entry order to interact and collectively reflect upon the situation whilst waiting to enter the festival’s exhibitions.
Project team:
Nika Bronič – Slovenia
Ema Ferreira — Slovenia
Blaž Jagarinec – Slovenia
Jakob Draž Planinšek – Slovenia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Aline Lara Rezende
Amanda Sperger
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
TITLE:
Nanotourist Strategies for Cusco, 2019
LOCATION:
MIL Centro (Moray), Cusco, Peru
WHEN:
19 July - 3 August, 2019
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Moray, Cusco, Peru
2019
The differences and lack of relationship between the two „communities“ living in the area of Moray can be best observed through where individual members decide to sit down and have their lunch. Separation based on their background and role in the ecosystem of MIL speaks for itself. The duality of space itself and the approach to eating (through objects used) is what we want to bring closer through this project. To establish a platform where the exchange of customs, experiences and knowledge happens through the act of sharing food, location and cooking itself. And in order to join these two different viewings and approaches to eating and sharing food we need to create or design if you will, a new ritual. One that does not impose anything and includes all.
An open space, inclusive and adaptable. The project thus manifests itself as a carved space in the surrounding landscape right inbetween MIL and the archelological site of Moray. The intervention is composed of a designated area for the production of an open fire, platforms for food processing and a seating area. It serves as a community space that is based on the long-lasting traditons of Andean pit-cooking and preparation of traditional sauces. The circular design signifies inclusiveness and references Moray as a former site of agricultural production.
Project team:
Oscar Becerra Vargas – Peru
Juan Samuel Huaman Achulli – Peru
Dan Mrevlje – Slovenia
Giulia Soldati – Italy
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Rafael Freyre
Jakob Travnik
Co-Mentors:
Francesco d’Angelo
Amanda Sperger
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Moray, Cusco, Peru
2019
Moray is one of the most frequently visited Inka sites in the Andes of Peru. Its historical origin and value have never been archeologically properly researched or proven. Recent governmental reconstruction of the curved terraces paid little attention to archaeology, only focusing on the form, resulting in extremely superficial understanding of Moray serving to a mass tourism model of visiting. The project is a creative critique to the existing model, proposing an alternative path of visiting Moray through a set of Circles (Muyus) each site specific and filled with a story of a local community member. The visitor is engaged in deeper understanding of the site by the participatory action at each of the Circles.
The project proposes an alternative route around the archeological site of Moray. It identifies different qualities of place by stimulating all the senses. In the context of Moray, the project thus manifests itself as a pilgrimage that offers a series of possibilities for obtaining a new experience by not only involving all the senses, but also by gaining a hands on understanding of stories and knowledge about the surrounding communities. Through intensive participatory action research, the group extracted meaningful stories of local people that have been untold or, as it turned out, deliberately forgotten. It thus offers an alternative way of experiencing and understanding the archeological site of Moray that goes beyond traditional assumed facts and selfy–obsessed tourist culture.
Project team:
Jennifer Durand - Peru
Akemi Cabrejos Matayoshi - Peru
Samantha Nicole Segura Martel - Peru
Deja Vrbnjak - Slovenia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Rafael Freyre
Jakob Travnik
Co-Mentors:
Francesco d’Angelo
Amanda Sperger
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
International 2019 Piranesi Student Honorable Mention – shortlisted
Link to: Piranesi Award Homepage
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Moray, Cusco, Peru
2019
The project aims to be a different pardigm of tourism.
By taking into consideration that tourism should not change the real daily life of the inhabitants.
The project team in collaboration with the members of the community designed an alternative solution that includes language as the main resource of exchange and also celebrates everyday life.
Quechua – Spanish – English can actually merge into one system based into the most pure form of representation: the line drawings of kids, as a language that can be undestood by anyone.
In the village of Kacllaraccay, located nearby Moray, daily work and life of the community members primarily happens outside the buildings: from the public space and their fields to the more private outside spaces which are the patios.
Corn husk booklets are the begining of this experience the booklets connect visitors with the members of the community and therefore transport you to the village.
First visitors arrive at Kacllaraccay’s main square where one can learn about the the social and cultural history of Kacllaraccay through an installation. A map and informative posters explain the steps of the ‘not staged’ experience: A journey through the open courtyards of the inhabitants. The encounters with the inhabitants in their open working patios encourage active participation in ongoing daily activities. This exchange nourishes not only learnings about specific activities, but it also fosters exchange of language(s) and rituals that are spontaneous and specific to the moment and time the encounter takes place.
Project team:
Theresa Kettner – Czech Republic
Rodrigo Martel – Peru
Alessandra Meinardo – Peru
Angeles Órtiz – Ecuador
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Rafael Freyre
Jakob Travnik
Co-Mentors:
Francesco d’Angelo
Amanda Sperger
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Moray, Cusco, Peru
2019
The province of Maras has a complex system of distribution and water sources, with underground salty and fresh water. The first part of the project consists of a thorough research of these systems.
The second part of the project consists of an intervention, located in the courtyard of MIL Centro.
It represents a collaborative and community-based intervention to raises awareness about the lack of water in the area. The intervention consists of a collection of the traditional containers used by the communities to store and transport water as well the communites‘ active participation in the construction of the installation - an act that alone speaks of the willingness to collaborate and the need to speak about the topic of water.
Project team:
Marcela Durand - Peru
Silvana Loayza - Peru
Antonella Zumaeta - Peru
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Rafael Freyre
Jakob Travnik
Tutors:
Francesco d’Angelo
Amanda Sperger
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
TITLE:
Nanotourist Strategies for Honolulu, 2018
LOCATION:
Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaiʻi, USA
WHEN:
Friday, 06 July – Saturday, 21 July, 2018
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA 2018
The Preserved in Salt project is exploring and redeveloping the potential of salt production in Kaka‘ako to bring awareness to this valued resource that was once prevalent in the area. Li‘u i ka pa‘akai literally means well-seasoned and preserved in salt which speaks of how ancestral knowledge is preservered in everything we see and do and sometimes we just need to brush off the salt to tap into our ability to understand the past and co-create knew knowledge for the future. The Preserved in Salt project proposes to co-create new methods of salt production in Kaka’ako as a way to create meaningful connections, experiences, and investments to people, place, and culture. This process provides opportunities to build upon ancestral knowledge and increase community connections and capacity.
Project team:
Lena Vozlič - Slovenia
Jiexin Wang - China / Australia
Poutasi Seiuli - Samoa / Hawai’i
Keli‘i Kapali - Hawai’i
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva
Karla Sierralta
Brian Strawn
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
Shade on You Sheding Light on a Larger Issue AA Visiting School nanotourism, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA 2018 The Shade on You project studies how a group of individuals can collectively influence a larger issue. The project began as an exploration of the negative effects of sunscreen, and the collective destruction of coral reefs that both tourists and locals play a role in. Coral could soon be a thing of the past and landscapes have already been altered/ commoditized for the use of mass tourism promising limitless enjoyment. Street advertising was banned to create unobstructed views of Hawaii’s most precious sights yet skyscrapers, cranes, mass tourism, cruise ships exist to supplement tourism. Vendors in Waikiki have found a loophole by hiring sign wavers to advertise to tourists walking along Kalakaua Avenue. How can we use the advertising ban to our advantage to fuse the idea of the collective and the need to protect ourselves from the sun to create a collective experience for people at the beach?
Project team:
Lana Arih - Slovenia
Žan Šabeder - Slovenia
Sho Tetsutani - Hawai’i / Japan
Yiyi Zhu - China / Australia
Mentors:
Aljosa Dekleva
Karla Sierralta
Brian Strawn
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA 2018
''Intimate Strangers'' a platform to promote social change in the spirit of Aloha - “Ha meaning the breath of life and spiritual mana. It draws upon the positive gestures between strangers that is exhibited in everyday local behaviours. It brings awareness, provokes, and encourages, us to pass this behaviour on.
Project team:
Sara Borjanovič - Serbia
Blaž Jagarinec - Slovenia
Anja Mencinger - Slovenia
Melise Nekoba - Hawai’i
Mentors:
Aljosa Dekleva
Karla Sierralta
Brian Strawn
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA 2018
Kaka‘ako is ever changing, but it was a place that offered much for O‘ahu. Because of this, it is important to remind future generations of how this land naturally worked, which in other parts of Hawai‘i has been respected and preserved. Like the importance of ecosystems, flow of currents, and patterns of rains; the invisible flow of air was carefully documented and understood to sustain an isolated population. As the green ridges and valleys are becoming blocked with high-rises, the salt barring lands converted to parking lots, and as Sig Zane mentioned our view of the world is becoming screened by pixels, this knowledge of how nature plays is being lost. As people change their surroundings, they in result change themselves. In consequence, the way of life here is being lost. How we can remember the winds of the past for the winds of the present in an educational and quantitative way is our mission for this project
Project Team:
Cameron Atsumi - USA
Wenxi Chen - China / Australia
Luka Preradović - Slovenia
Chris Songvilay - Hawai’i
Mentors:
Aljosa Dekleva
Karla Sierralta
Brian Strawn
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AA nanotourism archive
TITLE:
Nanotourist strategies for Ault, 2017
LOCATION:
Ault, France
WHEN:
Friday, 28 April – Saturday, 13 May 2017
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Ault, May 2017
Ault inhabitants live with the cliffs as a single entity, as symbiotic organisms depending on one another. The historical development of the society goes hand in hand with the geological evolution of the cliffs. As human beings we cannot stop natural processes such as the erosion of this seaside town and the social phenomena caused by it. As architects we act as mediators between the natural and artificial environment, therefore our role is to be sensitive to the personal attachment that a community has to both. Working with the collective memory and the unavoidable oblivion we are all exposed to, “Our Cliffs”, is the result of listening to the echoes of the local community while providing the experience of a physical identification with its surroundings. “Pourriez-vous me parler d’Ault et de Les Falaises?” (Could you talk to me about Ault and The Cliff?):
Through conversations, personal experiences about the place are extracted. Each person is invited to come to Onival beach in front of the cliff and testimony his/her own words, a photograph is taken as they pose carrying the mirror with the cliff reflected, as if they are holding a piece of it. The cliff carries Ault, the habitants carry the cliff. From each picture, a postcard is created. The postcard collection is the conclusion of the project but also the beginning of a long-term communication channel between inhabitants and visitors alike.
Project team:
Ximena Izquierdo Garcia - Mexico
Daniel Romero - Mexico
Tjaša Tušar - Slovenia
Paulina Whitaker Tabet - Brasil
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Christian Pottgiesser
Co-mentor:
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AAVSnt Archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Ault, July 2017
Where is the public space in Ault? Can this be established on a site-specific coast of dynamic tidal changes?
Can this be established on a site-specific coast of dynamic tidal changes? Analysing the current use of the coast we determined that it already represents a main public area of the city. Based on our investigations, our goal was to see if it is possible to replicate sociological effects of urban environment in these specific circumstances. For the experiment, the methodology to achieve desired effects was to displace a chair from its usual context into an ephemeral environment. In order to observe the interactions and behavioural influence of the chair, they were recorded using stationary cameras. Other aspect of observing the behaviour consisted out of conducting discussions with users, to understand the potential conversation catalysts of a chair.
The red stain into the waves, and the continuous and permanent morphing condition, allow us to imagine several scenarios since the most idilic like the quiet fine conversation, until the most polemical like: A chair is still a chair once submerged?
Project team:
Alberto Aguilar Nava - Mexico
Sven Jirka - Germany
Remy Sausset - France
Matej Tili - Slovenia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Christian Pottgiesser
Co-mentor:
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AAVSnt Archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Ault, May 2017
Talking about things I don’t truly understand, but they nevertheless seem true... Present. Thinking, maybe the only place I am really present. Am I present through the things I have? How present is my presence? Understanding the place. What does that even mean? Is reality a blurred mixture of subjective and objective? Between facts and fiction? Between logical and improbable?
- What do you mean exactly?
- I mean, but exactly.
Look within! Within what? And why? I don’t understand! What is presence? When are you? I am! I just am! Where? Here? Here? Here? Is there one Here? Argh! I don’t know!
Project team:
Camille Cieutat - France
Sebastjan Cvelbar - Slovenia
Domagoj Osrecak - Croatia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Christian Pottgiesser
Co-mentor:
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AAVSnt Archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Ault, May 2017
The city, the beach, the sea. Three moving elements. One thing remains: the change. After exploring the sea, trying to fight against this element, the Aultian people found a solution: to adapt. After France introduced the paid holidays in 1936, Ault became a famous seaside resort. The Picardie village became well-known for sea treatments, bathing, and leisure. But its beautiful cliffs are eroding, letting tonnes of chalk and pebbles fall, shaping the beach daily. This public space is a theatre of habits, helped by the development of devices. Nowadays tourist groups or activities are taking place in the free area where nature meets culture. Both spaces are overlapping each other, blurring the boundaries between the urban life and the seascape. In the middle of this scenario, the Aultian women undergoes a process of transformation. Like a ritual, she undresses herself, layer by layer, progressively removing her civil habits, hanging her ego, entering the wild. As a picture of society, leading by social rules and law, this ephemeral catwalk is the ultimate nano-touristic dissection.
Project team:
Roberta Alecrim Trindade - Brasil
Alice Foreman - United Kingdom
Mathilde Redouté - France
Maruša Žemlja - Slovenia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Christian Pottgiesser
Co-mentor:
Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
AAVSnt Archive
The AA Visiting School nanotourism (formelry AA Visiting School Slovenia) started its application of nanotourist strategies in the tiny town of Vitanje in the north-eastern part of Slovenia.
The first programme was organised in 2014. After its initial success, the AAVS nanotourism programme continued to research and develop nanotourist strategies for the town of Vitanje with subsequent programmes in 2015 and 2016.
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2016
In collaboration with Zlati Grič, the renowned regional winery, we have looked at KSEVT as a an opportunity for a site-specific, experimental wine tasting adventure. Following the research on the culture of wine tasting and aspects of drinking on earth and in outer space, we have looked closely into the physical as well as programmatic properties of KSEVT with the aim of determining the space that can add KSEVT-specific value to wine tasting experience. Ultimately, we opted for the endless, sloped exhibition space which challenges visitor’s subconscious relationship with the gravity by adding dynamics to the body movement through space. The project manifests itself as a reinterpretation of the traditional wine glass, in an event-specific wearable suit, which, through a systematically attached system of tubes, challenges you to use your body movement as a way of drinking your “glass” of wine. As a result, the wine tasting experience at KSEVT becomes a body performance choreographed by the path of the tube transferring a sip of wine from the injection bag to your mouth.
Project team:
Tarick Astitou - Belgium
Tadej Bogovič - Slovenia
Aleksander Cifer - Slovenia
Tin Troha - Slovenia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Christian Pottgiesser
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, AAVSnt archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2016
The project proposes KSEVT as a functioning venue for a site-specific dining experience. As an extension of the exhibition of space technologies, or as a stand-alone event, eating becomes a rather different encounter with food as we know it. In collaboration with the KSEVT management and the local Restaurant Gastuž, we have carefully analysed the sensorial and spatial qualities of the building in relation to its programme. As a result a set of eating scenarios has been developed, where the traditional notion of dining has been subverted by the KSEVT’s architectural and programmatic implications and where the topic of gravity and outer space human experience play a pivotal role in how the food is served and how you consume it. Simultaneously, this rigorous research and experimentation has also stimulated our collaborating team of chefs to re-interpret their local cuisine to create site-specific dishes, made exclusively for gastronomic events in KSEVT.
Project team:
Yassine Bruneau - France
Rachel Gabrielli Cohen - France
Roberta Jurčić - Croatia
Kaja Stopar - Slovenia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Christian Pottgiesser
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, AAVSnt archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2016
KSEVT, Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies, was built on one singularity, Potočnik’s book from 1929, “The Problem of Space Travel”, and a series of loose facts. The project looked at the whole story of Herman Potočnik Noordung and the correlated history to ultimately have a different view in the form of our own, more entertaining, version of the legend. Parallel to the creation process of the Potočnik’s new story we held the topic of “re-questioning” upright by doing various guerrilla actions, like our own alternative guided tours of the KSEVT exhibition. The project illustrates itself physically as a critical manifesto of mass tourism: a pilgrimage which dissolves KSEVT’s compressed history of Potočnik, and guides the visitor throughout various sites in Vitanje. At this point all local businesses that do not benefit from their own direct proximity to KSEVT can revive. The final destination of the pilgrimage is the existing bench at the popular viewing point on hill slope above Vitanje, where he finds an installation, a shiny object abstractly placed in the landscape that holds the caption to the view towards Vitanje with KSEVT and reads “BUY YOUR OWN CRITICAL DISTANCE AT THE BOOKSHOP OF KSEVT”. After some critical reflection and upon return, visitor can buy at KSEVT an artifact of memorabilia, a 30 cm long bras bar with engraved inscription “critical distance = 300 m” and “scale 1:1000”.
Project team:
Tin Jelavic - Croatia
Sara Škarica - Croatia
Ajdin Vuković - Bosnia and Hercegovina
Jan Žužek - Slovenia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Christian Pottgiesser
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, AAVSnt archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2016
We started our project at the AA Visiting School Slovenia in Vitanje with a focus on the research of the local river system, which brought us to an interesting place - a dam with an urban environment around it created by the local youth. This social situation interested us, so we decided to collaborate with them and develop our project on that specific site, corresponding to the user’s needs and ambitions. Once the dam was built, changes in the dynamic of the water levels allowed for the creation of different sets of activities. There is no direct access to the other side of the river bank, currently used as a slightly hidden social space by the local youth – a bunker and fireplace. Proceeding on this idea of an ‘’adrenaline park’’, it became clear to us that we don’t want to create just a bridge that would create both banks but rather create a structure with a manifold of uses, which could successfully complement the already existing activities on site. Looking critically at the use of materials in relation to the site, we decided to use local climbing ropes for the construction of the bridge as they provide the needed stability yet also cater for the flexible use of the structure under different conditions by the specific local user group
Project team:
Nikita Aneja - India
Urša Gantar - Slovenia
Adrian Kozikowski - Poland
Jure Žibret - Slovenia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Christian Pottgiesser
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, Jakob Travnik, AAVSnt Archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2016
The aim was to propose and partially build a set of pavilions next to the playground of KSEVT. Some of the planned programmes were toilets and changing rooms for the athletes and bar, storage and tribunes for everyone. In the beginning, it wasn’t clear why the athletes didn’t want to use the already existing facilities inside KSEVT, so we talked to the president of the local football association and he told us that he and his team do not want to be responsible for all the other players which are using KSEVT. After doing some research, we discovered a ventilation tunner, which ends next to the playground. Because of that, we proposed a new staircase, which will lead through the shaft, directly to the basement of KSEVT, where all bathrooms and changing rooms are located. On top of the ventilation shaft, we built tribunes which also serve as an entrance pavilion.
Project team:
Nino Čubelić - Croatia
Luka Dušević - Croatia
Eva Sevšek - Slovenia
Anastazija Stjepanović - Croatia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Christian Pottgiesser
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, AAVSnt Archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2015
The DON'T PANIC project is exploring and developing the potential of Vitanje to emphasize and build up on identity that this small town has gained with the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT). The ephemeral land art installation, created in collaboration between AA Visiting School participants and local community through an engineered social event is bringing both societies, of KSEVT and of Vitanje, together in an unique context of local knowledge, architecture, art and science. Starting from the fact that Vitanje’s Google Maps imagery database has not been updated since the building of KSEVT has been erected, the project takes the opportunity to send the message to the outer space (and the rest of the world) with a single snapshot of the Vitanje area from the sky. The cultural (scientific and fictional) relation between Herman Potočnik Noordung, Arthur C. Clarck and Douglas Adams is making the Don't Panic message perfect match for Vitanje and KSEVT.
Project team:
Moritz Oliver Benatzky - Austria
Asena Colak - Turkey
Tina Čerpnjak - Slovenia
Florian Hummer - Austria
Gabrielle Pitacco - Italy
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Michael Obrist
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Rok Deželak, AAVSnt archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2015
Can KSEVT be a playground? We are triggering unconventional ways of body movement and individual experience of each visitor of KSEVT by a specific spatial intervention. Referring to an old children game, we have designed a spatial intervention which will induce visitor’s various body movements in space that will provide a dynamic bodily experience. We have used participatory action research to create interactive experience to understand diverse experience of individual transition through given space. We have created two objects for twofold experience: the outdoor object works as a permanent 3D playground in a form of a cube intertwined by climbing ropes, whereas the indoor object is upgrading KSEVT’s central space, shifting the perception end physical experience of unique round indoor space of KSEVT.
Project team:
Sanja Bušatlič - Bosnia & Hercegovina
Katarina Bošnjak - Bosnia & Hercegovina
Martina Mataija - Croatia
Eva Vasileska - Macedonia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Michael Obrist
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, AAVSnt Archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2015
The project wants to expand the experience of the existing exhibition in KSEVT and wants to offer to the visitor the experience of the outer space which will connect the local with the planetary. In the surrounding hillsides of Vitanje there will be deployed objects from which the visitor can observe the specificities of Vitanje in relation with KSEVT and planetary phenomena. Hillsides are crowded by trembling »stars«. The experience point is alineating the visitors from everything known to him and allows him to experience multiple sunsets. Astronauts in outer space are experiencing 16 sunsets in one day. The visitor will be guided from KSEVT to individual experience point by a local person.
Project team:
Sabina Marov - Croatia
Gregor Mljač - Slovenia
Danica Sretenović - Serbia
Nuša Zupanc - Slovenia
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Michael Obrist
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, AAVSnt Archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2015
We have looked at the contents of the institution of KSEVT and it’s programme of culturalisation of space through the participation of local inhabitants at building up structures through which they represent their own understanding and participation to the “yet unseen”. With the ambition of expansion of the public programme surrounding KSEVT, we have invaded already existing structures, with which we stimulate new rituals of use and understanding of everyday structures in relation to the planetary experience. In this way we stimulate collective awareness of the new bond of Vitanje community with the existing programme of KSEVT.
Project team:
Denis Hitrec - Slovenia
Marin Berović - Croatia
Johanna Machunze - Germany
Francesca Gatello - Italy
Zeno Franchini - Italy
Mentors:
Aljoša Dekleva, Michael Obrist
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, AAVSnt Archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2014
How can KSEVT accommodate sleep-overs? Site-specific added value to the KSEVT exhibition is the experience of levitation in an environment of gravity. Team’s field of research was the transition from conventional 2D sleeping to the experience of 3D sleeping. KSEVT hotel offers two experiences. Individual, where the researcher can spend the night in KSEVT by sleeping in a uniquely engineered levitation-suit, suspended in the central space of KSEVT. Or collective, where a group of people can experience 3D sleeping as an extended feature of the exhibition, where a set of pyramid shaped cushions support your entire body in a custom 3D position while asleep. The concept of KSEVT hotel and 3D sleeping embodies the unique program of KSEVT - it fulfils the accommodation needs of the institution and furthermore upgrades already unique visitor experience.
Project team:
Samo Bojnec - Slovenia
Natalie Jasinski - Poland/Austria
Kaja Švab - Slovenia
Vid Žnidaršič - Slovenia
Mentors:
Ajoša Dekleva, Tina Gregorič
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, AAVSnt archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2014
KSEVT has changed the status quo of Vitanje, but its visitors come to see the exhibition and leave right after. HangOut Vitanje responded to this issue by researching and devising alternative accommodation strategies and activities, giving KSEVT visitors or local residents a reason to explore the area for a longer period of time – from some hours to several days. HangOut Vitanje proposes an intrinsic experience of renting out a bag kit with a site-specific, XL lace hammock and a map with a set of site proposals to explore. New discoveries can be noted and uploaded to the project website, where personal spots of interest can be shared. Custom lace hammocks are produced by reworked traditional bobbing technique to fit specific sites and conditions. They offer a possibility of accommodation and space for activities, while all infrastructures, including the renting service, are available at KSEVT. They represent an alternative to a conventional vision of a hotel or camping.
Project team:
Jurij Ličen - Slovenia
Janaina Lisiak - Brazil
Anja Petek - Slovenia
Zizhengyan Yang - China/Australia
Mentors:
Ajoša Dekleva, Tina Gregorič
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, AAVSnt Archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2014
The building of KSEVT was planned to contain both: planetary programmes and local community cultural centre. KSEVT Outdoor Community wanted KSEVT to play a bigger role in the lives of Vitanje inhabitants. Analysing their needs and issues, a set of site specific socially engineered interventions were formulated in order to integrate people of Vitanje with KSEVT and its assets. The team has organised all-day public event KSEVT-FEST, hosting football tournament with made-on-spot goulash, large scale chess board games and open air cinema evenings: kinoKSEVT. Active participation of mostly younger population at these events has clearly showed a critical need for outdoor social programmes related to KSEVT. To sustain such activities, the team has equipped active participants with DIY manuals and has built a series of simple, locally sourced wooden seats that foster a physical evidence and collaborative relationship between KSEVT and the local community.
Project team:
Marijan Ladić - Croatia
Dorian Vujnovič - Croatia
Runze Wang - China/Australia
Mentors:
Ajoša Dekleva, Tina Gregorič
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, AAVSnt Archive
AA Visiting School nanotourism, Vitanje, July 2014
The team addressed objects of activation - in a form of structures, spaces or events - that connect people of Vitanje and users of KSEVT on a social and emotional level. The connection was activated by joint participatory exhibition of products by local craftsmen and of photographs taken by residents, based on the initiative of the team: local participants were asked to photograph the representations of KSEVT or Space in their own home environments. The exhibition took place in the multi-purpose foyer of KSEVT and coincided with the final jury and exhibition opening of the AA Visiting School. Vitanje expo @KSEVT has questioned the institution of KSEVT, to open up to the needs of the local community. Materialising the exhibition setup the team was using semi reflecting foil to convert generic foyer lightning into spot-lights and rented local wooden slats, half-products of local saw mills, for flexible, systematically organised and integrated exhibition system.
Project team:
Arefeh Sanaei - Iran
Valentin Tribušon - Slovenia
Aleš Žmavc - Slovenia
Mentors:
Ajoša Dekleva, Tina Gregorič
Co-mentors:
Blaž Šef, Jakob Travnik
Photo credits:
Ajda Schmidt, AAVSnt Archive
is experimental teaching, research and development programme as a part of the AA Visiting School at the Architectural Association, School of Architecture in London, UK.
To change the perspective on how we visit places and better understand the ones we live in, we propose the constructed term, nanotourism, which stands for a creative critique of the current environmental and social downsides of conventional tourism.
Nanotourism is a site-specific, participatory, locally oriented and bottom-up practice that stretches beyond tourism: it is an attitude dedicated to improving specific everyday environments and a strategy for creating new models of local economies.
Since 2014 the programme has been developing projects addressing specific places worldwide with students and professionals who wish to further their knowledge, practice and skills relevant to architectural and social issues.
The key teaching agenda of AA nanotourism is to promote a creative process that expands beyond “design”. The process of researching, designing, and making is just as important as the outcome. Ultimately, AA nanotourism is an architectural school of critical thinking that strives to transform the everyday routine into new and meaningful experiences of mutual participation. It is a programme that challenges the self-evident and looks beyond standard solutions.
nanotourism is a central topic of research and development.
Programme Head: Aljosa Dekleva
Programme Assistant: Vid Znidarsic
AA Nanotourism would not be possible without the dedication and hard work of all the past and present team members.
Tina Gregoric and Aljosa Dekleva acted as Programme Heads in the first edition of Visiting School in 2014, with Aljosa taking over from 2015 onwards.
Jakob Travnik was a valuable team member from the beginning as a Programme Assistant until 2022. Amanda Sperger was assisting from 2020 until 2022. Vid Znidarsic joined in 2024 to further elevate the programme in the future.
A rich community of visiting teachers, lecturers, jurors, experts and local stakeholders enriched and made AA Nanotourism one of the longest-standing and most successful AA Visiting School programs.
Contact:
nanotourism@aaschool.ac.uk
One of the principal missions of the AA nanotourism Visiting School is to leave a lasting and positive mark in the specific locations within which we work in. As a result, we have developed close relations with many individuals, organisations and companies that believed in our mission in making the world a better place.
We would like to sincerely thank all our past, present and future collaborators for their continuous support both financially and materially all in the effort of making our endeavours possible!
