Buildings as Artifacts: Heritage, Patriotism, and the Constructed Landscape

Architectural collections or reconstructed villages are popular tourist attractions in Europe and the United States, often promoting architecture as a demonstration of national and regional heritages. At times, these sites betray the biases of their creators, perpetuated through methods of display and their public interpretation. The architecture can be used as artifact or backdrop to promote ethics, history, or industry at the hand of curators, particularly when removed from its original context and constructed in a new one. When viewed through the lens of tourism, the collections become a constructed landscape of architectural heritage, experienced by visitors through a narrow understanding of time and place, propagated by fabricated historical connections or purposeful nationalist arrangements. Often accessorizing ‘authentic’ architectural heritage with reconstructions and reproductions, these collections suggest a skewed heritage landscape to the non-specialized visitor, emphasizing tourism over truth and entertainment over education. Following 19th century examples in Scandinavia and the broader introduction of international architecture through the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, early 20th century American collections at Greenfield Village and the Manitou Cliff Dwellings underscore the intent to capitalize on architectural heritage tourism, and how a diluted history is interpreted through the eyes of the modern tourist