Photo: courtesy of: Ignacio Bisbal Grandal. José Juan Barba
Published in C3 no. 312 | 1008
Gateways of Heritage
Interpretation centers are empty buildings. Or in other words, they contain something that cannot be appreciated at first glance ‑something that requires time and curiosity to be understood. In this un-immediateness of visible content lies the main role of interpretation centers. They house that immaterial substance that might be referred to as local knowledge. They contain nothing but a résumé of what surrounds them. They exist in relation to the importance of a given context. Moreover, their importance (or their needfulness) comes to light only after people have become aware of the interest of a certain place. The reason for interpretation centers is then in a way subject to a locale or a local history. Furthermore, as they are always born a posteriori with respect to the place, they will never create a new place.
A clear definition of interpretation is given by Pere Izquierdo Tugas in the Hicira (Heritage Interpretation Centres) Handbook (1): “Interpretation is a working method which facilitates presentation and social use of heritage and serves to provide a reading and options for its active use by means of many presentation and animation resources. Interpretation is based on cultural and/or natural evidence, either material or immaterial, found in a given location and seeks to promote these features in their original context. To this end, the aim is always in situ recovery and the greatest possible contextualization of heritage resources. The idea of the object as having value in itself in isolation from its function and setting, is rejected”.
But let us see how interpretation centers can be defined from a typological point of view. In this respect, they belong to that class of buildings conceived for the dissemination of information and knowledge. They can be thought of as places for appreciating and learning what a given area can offer. They basically contain information that people formerly found through libraries, encyclopedias or oral history. They propose a new manner of understanding a locale by other avenues, such as through a direct feeling and through the human senses, including sight, touch, or sensory perception in general. The Interpretation Centers are meant to promote a place through the sort of features it is able to offer by highlighting these or recalling them to the minds of visitors. Interpretation Centers cannot be standalone entities, therefore, as they are deeply rooted in a site, which can be a historically important location, or a place of general interest, or even a country park. Generally speaking those centers provide (or better, propose) an interpretation – as the name suggests – of the place through cardboards, panels, video displays and exhibition materials in general. The main concept, though, is to create a building which allows visitors to taste and begin to understand the qualities of a certain place that they are going to see with their own eyes. The history of the city or the place, natural aspects of the surrounding area, tradition and heritage are their principal subjects, and around those kinds of places they can find their raison d’être.
In a certain way, interpretation centers are the opposite of museums. Whereas the latter are built to contain and present art and exhibitions coming from a diverse context, the former have the “local” as a main theme. Moreover a museum is often a building conceived for the purpose of housing pieces of art from different sources, such as the collection of a tycoon. The contents of a museum are often the result of ages of imperialist conquest or donations from a historically rich and powerful local family. In the museum, then, the art is studied, restored, collected or simply stored until the next exhibition. Generally speaking, a museum is a place to house art, while the interpretation center is devoted to presenting the heritage of a certain area.
Upon deriving an understanding the main purpose of interpretation centers, another aspect of their identity may be easily glimpsed. If the centers are conceived to present and disseminate a certain amount of information to the public and to promote a place or a local culture, they should not be confused with the object of interest itself. As the entrance to a house should indicate where to enter, so the interpretation center has to clarify that the importance of the area lies in the historic, cultural or natural aspects presented in the place and not in the building itself. It should not predominate in the panorama but be inserted in a measured way into the context. Unlike most recent museums – conceived to attract visitors for their iconic value or magnificent appearance – The main purpose of interpretation centers is to convey attention toward sources of interest which lie outside the center itself. As the entrance must not be confused for the building, the interpretation center should not be mistaken for the place of interest itself.
The general programmatic boundaries of these types of buildings having been clarified, a series of projects shown in this issue will demonstrate various ways of conceiving and building them. We will observe that the differences arise mainly from the characteristics of the places (whereupon the “what” has to be shown to visitors), including native cultures and local circumstances in general. In a few words, we could say that the final outcome of a given interpretation center depends on the given context.
Even though the relationship is not always immediately visible, the presented projects require one to see them while keeping in mind their deep relation to their surroundings.
That relationship may be appreciated for instance in the Vertical Component ‑ Centre for the Research and Interpretation of Rivers: Órbigo, Tera y Esla (Spain) designed by architect José Juan Barba. The Center is located in the area of Benavente, a small town close to Zamora. From a territorial standpoint the area is quite unique in that it is home to the meeting point of three rivers. The Órbigo and the Tera rivers flow into the Esla, a tributary of the Duero, one of the major Spanish waterways.
The architect followed a certain interpretation of the fluvial valley by transferring the geographical context to the building, which has been “elevated above the natural terrain by means of a system of piers.” By raising the main floor of the building an “observation of the terrain” is achieved “emulating the feeling of being removed from the land which any river gives us when we try to cross it or navigate it,” explains the architect.
On the other hand in an interpretation center visitors should feel that the place outside is also part of the inside. This feeling is clearly illustrated in The Mapungubwe Interpretation Center in Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa, by Peter Rich Architects. “The complex landscape” – as the architect describes it ‑ “was both the inspiration for the design and the source of the materials for the construction of the new Interpretation Centre, resulting in a composition of structures that are authentically rooted to their location.” For the attention it pays to the area’s history, the “archaeological revelation of past cultures” and the fragility of the environment (one of the main goals of the architect was to “awaken an understanding of the vulnerability of the local ecology”) the Mapungubwe Center received the World Building of the Year award at the World Architecture Festival 2009.
Shrubs, the vanishing tuart trees, thousands of protruding limestone boulders and timbers, together with vastness, sand and fire are the main material elements of the Pinnacles Interpretive Centre, a Woodhead project located in the Nambung National Park in Western Australia. In describing their project, the architects refer to a “mutable narrative of that landscape” which guided the project as a main design principle. By combining the in-loco materials, in fact, they root the building in the area. The main goal of this interpretation center is to present the natural features of the area and consequently a part of the cultural heritage of its inhabitants. It is by the same token that Woodhead Architects decided to burn part of the Center’s structure. This burning ritual is seen as “part of its design and building process” which “underscores the unique role of fire, both culturally and environmentally, in Australia.” “The burning and the burnt remains are integral to the scheme and highlight the relationship between fire, the land and its inhabitants,” explain the architects. The project therefore attempts to present the heritage both culturally and naturally through its construction and material features, trying to be a sort of summa of the Pinnacles area.
“The building is just finished, the area must be reborn and the wood must age… years will improve it.” With these words José María García Del Monte and Ana María Montiel Jiménez of QVE-arquitectos together with Fernando García Colorado describe the Centro de interpretación de la Naturaleza de Salburúa (Salburúa Nature Interpretation Center) in Vitoria, Spain. The building is located in a natural wetlands area on the outskirts of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Partially for its function (“a place to make contact with the wetlands you will visit later on”) and partially for its location between the urbanized area and the natural context, the Salburúa Center plays the role of gateway between the two different (but coexistent) territories. The building has been conceived as a “front door to the park, a threshold between two worlds “by the architects ‑ a building at the verge of the city which invites one to visit the natural surroundings. In this sense it is no wonder the wood ‑ a convenient “element of mediation” ‑ has been adopted not only as the main material, but also as the main constructive element of the Center. In that regard, “we did not want to make a ’wood-looking building‘ but a real wood building,” stated the architects.
Another way to highlight the natural features of a certain area is clarified by Standardarchitecture-Zhaoyang Studio in their Niyang River Visitor Center in Daze Village, Nyingchi, Tibet. The building is placed in the remarkable natural area of the Nyingchi County, surrounded by the Nyainqêntanglha Mountains (part of the Himalaya Range) and crossed by the Nyang River. More specifically, the Visitor Center lies near the Mirui Road ‑ a tourist road linking the main 318 National Road to the Daze village- and overlooks the Brahmaputra Canyon – considered one of the most magnificent canyons in the world. In order to introduce and emphasize to visitors the natural features of the area, the architects conceived a massive block of rocks for the exterior in order to match the natural surroundings. The Center’s skewed windows are still able to frame pictures of the impressive landscape from inside.
The project – “conceived as an imprint on the ancient territory” – attempts to “recall and embellish the historical and symbolic significance of the site.” With these words Kilo Architects describe their Volubilis Visitor Centre in Morocco. The project’s main goal is to inform visitors concerning the historical importance of the area. The archaeological site of Volubilis was in fact declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997. In facing the problem of placing new construction near one of the best preserved ancient ruins of that kind in North Africa, the architects split the museum’s volumes into several parts. Moreover they partially embedded the building into the hillside in such way that “visitors do not initially perceive its presence,” as the architects explain. The ruins – a heritage of ancient civilization and a human past immersed in the natural landscape – are the main protagonists of the site. The Visitor Center’s main scope consists of peacefully and unobtrusively presenting them.
The main goal of the French River Interpretive Centre, designed by Baird Sampson Neuert architects in Alban, Ontario (Canada) is to “embrace its condition as a place of passage, and is itself an expedition,“ as the architects put it. The Rivière-des-Français (an alternate name for French River), is in fact a main geographic element of the entire area. The river – since the time of the aboriginal people– has always been used as a place to meet and exchange trade goods. The river formed a vital link, especially in terms of the fur trade route from the Montreal market to the Northwest. Between its banks – since the beginning of seventieth century – a wide variety of peoples and cultures have passed: from generic voyageurs to missionaries and French explorers. Due to its historic importance, the river was nominated part of the Canadian Heritage River System in 1986. The Baird Sampson Neuert project has thus been conceived as “defining and invoking its physical qualities and cultural legacy through an integrated approach to architecture, landscape and exhibit environments.” The building therefore has the responsibility of fostering and showing to new generations of visitors the natural qualities and history of the place through the ancient and original traces of the “Footsteps of the Voyageurs” (an expression taken from the Canadian Heritage River System’s official description of the French River).
Cultural, historical and natural heritage are then an intangible matter for visitors, and they turn the centers into empty containers. The idea may seem banal, but it is nonetheless important to remember that what is inside a room is not always visible. The most important of things can remain right outside of the window or simply all around us.
Silvio Carta
(1) IZQUIERDO, P.; J. JUAN & J.C. MATAMALA, Heritage Interpretation Centres. The Hicira Handbook, Diputació de Barcelona, 2005. p.15
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