AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.08.1996, Qupperneq 65

NGLISH SUMMARY
E
This issue of Arkitektúr, verktækni og
skipulag (Architecture, Technology and
Planning) focuses on tourism and the
problem of harmonising this growing
industry, which has traditionally been
based on pure and unspoilt nature, with
the need to develop the facilities to serve
it in the modern age.
PAGE 9 THE TOURIST INDUSTRY
Editor Gestur Olafsson writes that de-
veloped areas are no less important for
lceland's tourist industry than the unin-
habited areas which form the traditional
sightseeing attractions. Good design
gives tourists an important impression
about the degree of civilisation in the
country they are visiting and lceland
should adopt international categorisa-
tions for hotels and restaurants to pre-
vent visitors from being misled.
PAGE 11 TOURISM IN HARMONY
WITH THE ENVIRONMENT
Environment Minister Gu&mundur
Bjarnason pinpoints nature as lceland's
„fifth resource" and examines its utili-
sation on the principles of sustainable
development. Vegetation and geologi-
cal formations suffer damage by sight-
seers and may eventually lose their at-
traction in the same way as any other
depleted natural resource. Given the
growth in green tourism, however, con-
servation of natural phenomena may
even be more economically beneficial
in the long run than developing their
sites for hydropower, mining or agri-
cultural use. Parliament has nowauthor-
ised the introduction of admission
charges to major sightseeing attractions.
Work is now under way on reconciling
opposing viewpoints of conservation
and utilisation for the uninhabited cen-
tral highlands.
PAGE 17 GOVERNMENT TOUR-
ISM STRATEGIES
Planner and business consultantKristófer
Oliversson describes the structure, back-
ground and findings of a joint govern-
ment and tourist industry steering com-
mittee to formulate a tourism strategy
until the year 1999. He traces the rapid
growth in tourism in recent years and
points to problems including the short
peak season and imbalanced distribu-
tion of tourists around the country. Vari-
ous policy focuses are outlined, broadly
speaking aimed at making lcelandic
tourism internationally competitive in
business terms while retaining the dis-
tinctive characteristics of its nature and
culture. Finally, statistical targets are
quoted for desirable growth over the
coming years.
PAGE 23 TOURISM IN REYKJA-
VÍK
City of Reykjavík Tourism Officer Anna
Margrét Guðjónsdóttir highlights the
importance for tourism of Reykjavík's
main city plan for 1996-2016, which
is now under preparation. Some 95%
of foreign tourists spend some time in
Reykjavík, in addition to local tourists
to the capital, and the city centre is the
main tourist attraction for cultural as
well as commercial reasons. A crucial
element in the plan will involve the old
city centre, where some improvements
have been already made but the op-
posite has happened in the downtown
Kvosin area. Nature is not the only
tourist attraction, since in the city, the
history underlying the old centre is no
less important, along with diversity of
shops and services. Kvosin, however,
has been opened to traffic and also
lost many of its shops to cafés and bars.
PAGE 28 BORROWED LAND-
SCAPE
Architects Pólmar Kristmundsson and
Pétur H. Ármannsson examine build-
ings as reflecting a specific attitude to-
wards nature and testifying to a na-
tion's level of civilisation at any time.
Central concepts are contrast and har-
mony, as well as space, which is a
particularly prominent feature of rural
lceland. On the basis that the role of
any building should be to capture the
genius loci of its location, they exam-
ine the successful effect of the 1 8th-cen-
tury treasurer's house and church on
ViSey island off Reykjavík, as well as
Richard Serra's recent environmental
sculpture there. Santorini is offered as
a contrasting example of "the visible
environmental impact of unrestrained
tourism." Other lcelandic buildings are
seen as successful in their use of con-
trastor harmony: the Blue Lagoon, tra-
ditional turfbuilt farmhouses, and the
"Borrowed Land" project to develop a
natural leisure centre at Þrastarskógur
based on both distant and local land-
scape effects.
PAGE 37 THE HIGHLANDS AND
TOURISM
Magnús Oddsson, director of the lce-
landic Tourist Board, when asked by
the Physical Planning Authority to pin-
point which proposed construction
projects should be referred to the tour-
ist industry for comment, replies that "all
construction takes place on a tourist
sife." He advocates accommodating
highland tourists in nearby communi-
ties rather than at hotels in the high-
lands themselves and points to various
local authorities' attempts to create spe-
cial tourist affractions. The right to uti-
lise the highlands should be equally
shared among all interested parties
without discrimination.
PAGE 39 HOTELS AND GUEST-
HOUSES IN ICELAND
Þorleifur Þ. Jónsson and Þórdís Páls-
dótfir criticises the lack of quality cat-
egories for fourist accommodation. The
difference belween a hotel and guest-
house is measured physically but nof
in terms of service and only a minimum
standard is laid down by health authori-
ties. As a result, some operators charge
only marginally less for very basic ac-
commodation than hotels of an inter-
national standard. What lceland needs
is a system of categories designed by
the tourist industry itself rather than of-
ficial bodies. Using Dick Schaff's five
factors for hotel service quality, the au-
thor finds that lceland scores well on
three or four, falling short on overpriced
lower-quality accommodation and on
red tape during check-in.
to design 20 different apartments aimed
at meeting the demands of the future.
Taking into account social develop-
ments, a basic principle in the designs
was the individual and his or her spa-
tial needs. Given the importance in lce-
land of demographic movement be-
tween small communities, the project
highlighted mobility of apartments them-
selves, "chasing" their inhabitants to
where they want to live. Structures use
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