Research Project: Regional Baukultur and Tourism

Project briefing

• Status Completed
• Project duration July 2016 – November 2019
• Programme ExWoSt

Baukultur and tourism are far too rarely handled and linked together. Especially in Germany’s rural regions, qualitative planning and constructing is often not recognised as tourism potential. There are numerous good reasons to change this. For starters, vibrant tourism can enhance the quality of life as well as the regional identity of rural areas while also maintaining the economic value in the regions. In the ExWoSt research field "Baukultur and Tourism - Cooperation in the Region" seven pilot schemes have examined how the cooperation between Baukultur and tourism in rural areas can be strengthened and which tools are useful.

Background

The relevant problem of the ExWoSt research field "Baukultur and tourism – cooperation in the region" was to work out to what extent quality planning and building in rural areas can be used as a tourist potential and how – vice versa – a flourishing tourism contributes to building cultural value. The key question was how the cooperation between Baukultur and tourism in the regions can be strengthened strategically and operationally. One initial thesis was: The cooperation of regional Baukultur and tourism can generate added value in the respective region and thus contribute to the stabilization of rural areas.
The substantive basis was provided amongst other things through the study "regional Baukultur and tourism", commissioned by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) within the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR) and the former Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), which was completed at the beginning of 2015. The research result and the present example of this study show, that there are good chances for a successful and sustainable joint development of Baukultur and tourism in Germany. In many regions and tourist destinations, the approach already exists which points to a profitable combination of good quality planning and construction and tourism development.

Objectives

In this field of research, the main aim was to put into practice the findings and approaches gathered in the preliminary study for the realization of cooperation between Baukultur and tourism and to work on a local implementation together with seven selected model projects. The central question was: How can the cooperation between Baukultur and tourism be strengthened in the regions?

To answer the research questions, it was the aim to achieve the following objectives together with the actors in the model projects:

• Networking of the relevant regional actors from Baukultur and tourism
• Initiate processes to promote cooperation between the two disciplines
• Develop a suitable "Baukultur- and tourism- strategy", which includes advertising strategies for the marketing of the Baukultur from the user perspective
• Carry out development planning
• Develop appropriate advisory tools for both "sides"
• Implement jointly defined measures
• Promote exemplary project developments
• Create formats to stabilize the initiated process and
• Evaluate success.

The research assistance to accompany the model projects and to evaluate the results of the research field was provided by the interdisciplinary "Arbeitsgemeinschaft BAUKULTOUR", consisting of the town planner and architect consortium Heinz Jahnen Pflüger (HJPplaner) from Aachen and the tourism consultancy COMPASS from Cologne.

Source: HJP Planer

Contractors of this research study have been Heinz Jahnen Pflüger – Stadtplaner und Architekten Partnerschaft, Aachen/Germany (HJPplaner) and COMPASS GmbH, Cologne/Germany.