Oase

Landscape and Mass Tourism

Commissioned by Nai-publishers [2004]

Editing of journal, research, filming of modern winter sports resorts in France

Oase is a periodical about architecture, urbanism, and related disciplines that publishes a thematic issue three times a year.

The theme of Oase nr 64 is the impact of mass tourism on the landscape from the fifties onward and the meaning of large-scale architecture in this context. One interesting phenomenon to arise from all this are the modern, planned resorts for winter sports in France: ‘les machines à skier,’ which grew out of a deliberate French politics of giving every Frenchman – and woman – ‘le droite à la neige,’ or the right to snow.

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Film

As studies and representative examples of this kind of urban organization and architecture, various winter resorts in France – among others, Aime La Plagne, Avoriaz, Les Arcs and Les Menuires – were filmed. A series of stills drawn from this material illustrates this phenomenon in the journal.

At the right, 4 montages:

Aime la Plagne, 3 March 2004, Monovolume, 2 min 34
Arc 1800, 2 March 2004, view from the parking lot, 2 min 40
Avoriaz, 5 March 2004, a section, 2min 58
Les Menuires, 1 March 2004, Place Joseph Fontanet, 2 min 40

Colophon

Editorial committee Oase 64

Like Bijlsma, Terenja van Dijk, Filip Geerts

Direction, production, scenario

Terenja van Dijk

Camera, sound

Terenja van Dijk

Editing

Terenja van Dijk and Jess De Gruyter