For an environmental history of tourist infrastructure in the French-Italian Alps (1945-1975)

• Caterina Franco ^[1]
  1. [1] Polytechnic University of Milan

     Polytechnic University of Milan

     Milán, Italia

     
• Localización: TOURISCAPE2 - Transversal Tourism and Landscape International Scientific Conference: Barcelona, 5th-6th November 2020 / coord. por Ricard Pié Ninot, Carlos Jesús Rosa Jiménez, Josep María Vilanova Claret, Joaquim Sabaté Bel, Enrico Porfido, 2020, ISBN 978-84-9880-855-1, págs. 271-284
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Libro
• Resumen

  • The proposed contribution deals with the production of a landscape operatedby the development of tourist activity in the highlands of the French-ItalianAlps. Objects of study are ski resorts planned and built at high altitude after theSecond World War.The work is carried out through the study of four cases: Pila and Sansicario,in the Italian Alps; Chamrousse and La Plagne in the French Alps. The mainobjective is to provide a new knowledge of the historical process of designand construction of alpine ski resorts, shifting from the analysis of touristarchitecture as autonomous and decontextualized objects, towards the enquireof the transformations of a landscape. We rely on a method developed byenvironmental historians who consider the history of a territory as the result ofinteractions between human actions and natural elements, over a long periodof time. We mobilise a corpus mainly constituted by documents belonging todifferent archival collections (local authorities, architects and urban planners,technicians), which we process by analysing textual, graphic and cartographicdocuments, as well as by redrawing and constructing timelines. In addition togive a contribution to the understanding of the history of tourist architecture inhigh mountain areas, the research also wants to contribute to the reflection onthe future of ski resorts: understanding the history of a landscape could openthe way to a consideration of it as a resource.