INTO THE WOODS A gateway to mutual ownership

Abstract

Pakistan is home to a diverse range of tourist sites, yet many, especially those with rich natural heritage, remain mismanaged and underutilized. Within the northern areas, tourist localities that cater to visitors do so exclusively in the summer and do little to invite them during the snowy winters. As tourist numbers increase each year, locals cater to their arrival through insensitive construction practices that pay no heed to their context. If such a trend persists, it will only deteriorate the diverse ecosystem that motivates tourists to visit. Moreover, the annual livelihood of the locals is completely dependent on tourist influx within this short period and unprecedented closures, as was highlighted by the pandemic, can adversely affect their way of life forcing them to eventually move out of tourist hubs for more stable futures elsewhere. Their identity does not step outside of tourism and there is a lack of community ownership and awareness for the ecologically rich cities that they occupy. In essence, I believe visitors and locals must work together to achieve a long-term solution to this crisis. My thesis firstly aims to effectively enhance existing tourism measures by providing spaces that can reorganize influx more sensitively to its context, for a greater part of the year. Secondly, it hopes to promote local involvement, interaction, and ownership within the community, so that locals can enhance their skillsets as a means to earn outside of the existing framework they find themselves in. I hope to create a landmark within the Ayubia National Park that pays homage to its rich ecosystem and heritage by providing a dual program of year-round tourist recreation and plant life conservation. This project will explore the role that circulation provides within architecture to introduce areas of separation and interaction between two widely different, but equally dependent users. This will be achieved through pathways, views, and levels while keeping in mind safe design practices that can provide longevity to the built environment. Here, the locals will be provided with spaces to invest back into the depleting fauna that exists within Ayubia, by conserving its plant life, which includes harvesting, post-harvesting, and product manufacturing spaces so that they may be involved within the entire conservation process. While the visitors will be directed through the site in a way that makes them appreciative and aware of the rich flora that surrounds the year-round activities catered for them. Together, each user will play their part in helping the other benefit through and beyond tourism.