Innovation Showcases
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, School of Architecture
Featured Heritage Values, Ethics, Aesthetics, Environment and Practices in Design, Architecture and Construction : A Case Study of Aman Resorts in China View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yang Liu
This paper considers heritage values, ethics, aesthetics, environment, and practices in design, architecture, and construction by providing a case study of Aman Resorts (a Swiss-headquartered multinational hospitality company) in China. Four resorts have been operating in China since 2008. Three of them are related to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Sites, and one of them is not. This one was reassembled from 50 deconstructed ancient villas moved from Fuzhou, which were built hundred decades ago. 10,000 camphor trees were moved with these villas to construct this resort. By analyzing how Aman Resorts applied heritage values, ethics, aesthetics, environment, and practices into the design, architecture, and construction of these four resorts, we find a relationship was built between invisible culture and visible architecture. Further, this relationship creates a new trend of communication in the hotel and hospitality business. A simple relationship between business and consumer has been changed to a communication between a habit (contains invisible values and culture, man-made design, architecture, and construction and natural environment) and consumer through business. Eventually, we suggest a theoretical model of communication among design and creation, nature, and human civilization for design, architecture, and construction in the hotel and hospitality industry.
Non Sustainable Design - Place-Based Design Versus Creations by Wealth: Urban, Landscape, and Architectural Design Examples from a Resource Management Case Study of Las Vegas, Nevada View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Kathryn Zimmerman
Drawing from a 6-year case study in resource management, this study presents urban, landscape, and architectural examples from a critical examination of the Las Vegas sustainability campaign that asked two basic questions: “what is being sustained” and “by what means?” Data was initially gathered via a spatial-temporal analysis of place that focused on two determinants: ecosystem resources necessary for basic human life and the social political economic development of place. Detailed data was gathered following site visits, participation in professional geographer field-trips, and historical research of water resource management in arid lands. Research findings identified specific, metropolitan areas that were built in arid lands not upon resources of place but upon a political-economic inversion of established water law that initiated over-consumption as a legal precedent and as an economic political tool for non-sustainable growth.
