Designing for Heritage : Contemporary Visitor Centres 2018
- Submitting institution
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The University of Lancaster
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 283188452
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
-
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- Publisher
- Lund Humphries
- ISBN
- 9781848222144
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- November
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- As the first book looking at visitor centres, it was also the first work to attempt a definition of this new and emerging building-type, providing a definitive description of what a visitor centre is and to combine spatial, functional and semantic analyses of an evolving building-type. The data collection and rigorous analyses of 42 visitor centres, of which 20 were further analysed in detail, took over a year of fieldwork, and included stakeholder interviews.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This was the first book to look at visitor centres, a relatively new building type, and the development of definitions for such structures. The work included the first definitive descriptions of types of visitor centre, combining spatial analysis, functional analysis and semantic analysis of the building type.
The book reviewed 42 visitor centres in the UK, of which 20 were analysed in detail. The selection process was discussed with reference to determining statistical significance. Standardised data gathered for each visitor centre was analysed. A range of Interviews were conducted with stakeholders for one visitor centre, exploring in detail the lived experiences of the facility.
The data and the analyses conducted were significant in building the case that visitor centres did constitute a new building type. In so doing, the monograph is both the first book to address this specific building type, and in presenting a series of new definitions for what might be characteristic as a visitor centre, but it is also novel in capturing the form and intentions of a new building type as it has been emerging.
The monograph has been well received by architectural practices, with comments from Heneghan Peng Architects ‘It's very informative– I have already been using it as a reference. It's so refreshing to have a book that is well researched. The comparisons are very useful, and the details studies are great.’ Other feedback noted that it was ‘perceptive, intelligent and engaging… Very useful to have the comparative analysis of other centres’ (Adam Khan Architects).
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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