"A place for mutual reconciliation and peace?": Bridging the north-south. Cross-cultural understanding in tourism.

 ABSTRACT: How can we design urban environments rich in experience for embodied learning and play that support knowledge in the making? And how can knowing the metaphysical roots and fundament of other cultures create an environment for cross-cultural understanding? 

To study the interrelations between garden, architecture, artefacts, media, discourses, embodied interaction and learning in educational environments, we as architects and urban planners must investigate and analyse the links between leisure, learning, architecture, narrative and interaction.

The first part will look into the history of the illusive, illuminated towers and gardens of  "Luna city", "Tivoli" and "Disney World", a world of illusion, simulation and experience described and analysed through the two French philosophers Baudrillard and Foucault, and into the origin of the multiform garden through Borges' novel "The garden of forking paths." 

The second part will look into the new laboratories of the virtual and actual worlds of architects such as Marcos Novak, Usman Haque, OMA, and Kas Oosterhuis. They create mobile, interactive, sensitive architectural objects and environments for the future, which can interact with the environment and the users. These are gardens, towers and architectural objects based on concepts, interaction and metaphors that give us a glimpse into the future. 

The third part is based on a case study of the design process of "the writer's path", on the rules and design tools in new games such as "Farcry", "Crysis", and "Half Life 2". The aim of this part is also to look at a case study of how architects can use game tools in the design process and thus create a better dialogue between user and designer. Learning from a case study on history, philosophy and the discourse of urban development, this paper will suggest and discuss concrete solutions for the new Queen's Garden in the city of Aalborg.

The Queen's Garden or the Peace Park contains six conceptual parts. The concept and intention of the park is: Knowing the metaphysical roots and fundament of other cultures can create urban environments rich in experience for embodied learning and cross-cultural understanding. The park is an attempt to create a modern, contemporary and spiritual green heart for the city of Aalborg. The six conceptual parts are: 1. Square of the four religions introduced: Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Hindu. 2. The two Islands contain parts of Greek mythology and Shinto. 3. Nordic mythology is a part of the Crystal Forest. 4. The writer's path leads from east to west, introducing past and contemporary writing & storytelling. 5. The lake and the canals are the core of the park and lead from north to south.6. The orangery and echo house introduce exotic plants and flowers.

Finally, this part will try to present methodological and analytical tools for the work, teaching and research at the architects' schools. The case will try to unfold new methodologies and future learning scenarios in order to reinvent, rethink and recreate the city of Aalborg and other cities.

Keywords: Place, play, learning, narrative, mutual understanding and peace.