Arquitetura e espaço público do turismo e do lazer: discursos turísticos da cidade de Paris

Abstract

With the growing tourism industry the world economy has changed the course its investment trends, transferring it from the industrial city to the cultural city. This change caused the derivation of political concerns, which are now increasingly focusing on the urban and architectural progress in order to create attractions and tourism improvement. The cities were redefined and public spaces began to welcome new cultural events. They are now seen as products of consumption and the need of media coverage and consequent urban competitiveness break forth, looking to burst the promotion of tourism. The architectural elements that contributed to these new tourism strategies and dynamics were the cultural facilities - museums and art centers particularly. By evolving from their classic configuration of instruction to the contemporary configuration of persuasion, they see their development concentrated in their visual and symbolic performances. Their new role will be to attract visitors by stimulating the consumption through the seduction by the image. The consumable city and consumable museum are the new assumptions of architectural interventions, and the marketing promotion is now one of the architect's new roles. The city of Paris dominated by the tourism industry is revealed as the obvious model of this new touristic era, with the Louvre Museum and the Georges Pompidou National Art and Cultural Centre the best examples of productions within these new modalities.