A contribution by Paul Allard and Margaux Monzée
Regarding the second analysis study of Wittenberger Heide, we placed our focus on the different viewpoints contributing to the attractiveness of the territory.
These vantage points are identified through location maps themselves scattered throughout the natural reserve. As we did our analysis we came to the sole conclusion that those points had lost their initial goals – namely presenting to the eyes of a visitor a remarkable piece of landscape as the landscape and the nature as evolved. Nothing was really done to maintain these viewpoints (which make sense, because their creation took place prior to the classification of the area as a natural reserve). The only remnants are the small pieces of landscape that can be seen between the branches of the trees and the benches legitimizing these places as remarkable spaces.
Caspar David Friedrichs chalk cliffs, painted in 1818, serve as a reference. (Source: Wikimedia commons)
As we were thinking of what could be done in these areas, we started to see a strong bond between mass tourism and the romantic movements in art and culture. The viewpoints respond to a mass tourism demand. As more and more people travel, tourism infrastructure got developed and cities started to make territorial marketing, highlighting some natural remarkable spots. As the population wanted to escape their “ordinary” lives, they wanted to discover new places, an interpretation of the search for the sublime in the living environment, the infinity of the landscape. It was a quest for romantic landscapes, that make you feel something with all your senses, provoke an emotion. Here is the link with the Romantic Movement, a new way to see, feel and represent landscapes. Hence vantage points were arranged in this sense, and we want with our project to re-give them this initial purpose of romantic landscape meaning offering a “travel” through all the human senses and emotion. Thus we developed two propositions to make this possible and renew the viewpoints.
Proposal for new viewpoints
StadtLand Studio#2 