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Terrain Cure: New Approaches to Interpretive Trailmaking in the Historic Health Landscape of the Sadgeri Plateau

Coleman, Sarah E
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6815-6314
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1593626779552787

Abstract Details

2020, Master of Landscape Architecture, Ohio State University, Landscape Architecture.
The Borjomi-Bakuriani region was once the center of the Soviet science of “resortology,” a system of rest and healing intimately tied to the unique physical characteristics of the alpine region. Every aspect of the landscape – climate, ecology, topography, aspect, hydrology – might be engaged to heal and restore the human body. Accessed by a specially constructed narrow-gauge railway, sanatoria complexes were interfaces between patients and the particular curative properties of this mountainous landscape. Connecting the body to this place – breathing its air, walking its relief, drinking its water – activated latent healing properties embedded in the landscape. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the associated financial crisis, agricultural and manufacturing collectives in the Borjomi-Bakuriani region were closed and sanatoria were abandoned. Built vestiges of this once thriving system of healing dot the landscape. Spring waters are still collected at their source by the few residents who remain in the villages; the status of these waters as a source of wellness and vitality remains unchanged. While the curative properties of this landscape are understood to remain embedded in place, coherence between the ecological and cultural artifacts has been lost, and opportunities to activate these healing effects are no longer apparent to visitors. Meanwhile, illegal logging and unsustainable development in the region threaten to disrupt the unique climactic and ecological conditions that constitute this health landscape. This project proposes the design of an interpretive trail that might re-inscribe coherence to this historic human-environment system. Responding to critiques of the traditional form of interpretive trail design, it explores the potentials of new strategies that might structure the design process for more effective interpretive trails in heritage landscapes. Specifically, this project asks if cultural practices that have historically structured a heritage landscape might be reified through the design of an interpretive trail. Can the goal of orienting trail users in historic person-environment systems, practices, and attitudes shape an interpretive design process? How can historic human-environment interfaces be drawn upon to instigate bodily engagement with heritage landscapes, providing meaningful, memorable experiences to visitors? Using the Borjomi-Bakuriani region as a test site, this project draws upon two historic health regimes once practiced in this landscape which drive the design of an interpretive trail. These regimes structure a trail system that maximizes bodily engagement with place and orients users in historic healing experiences: the drinking of medicinal mineral waters at their source, and the system of “terrainkur” (terrain cure), a series of prescribed, graduated walks. Drawing from the physical form of terrain cures, and guided by the desire to afford opportunities to drink, the design of such a trail affords interpretive opportunities that engage contemporary users in the historic, intimate link between the landscape’s hydrology, geology, ecology and climate and the body’s ability to heal in relation to these features.
Katherine Jenkins (Advisor)
Justin Parscher (Committee Member)
133 p.
Landscape Architecture
trails; heritage landscapes; interpretive design; trail design; Borjomi-Bakuriani; mineral water; terrain cure; health landscapes

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Coleman, S. E. (2020). Terrain Cure: New Approaches to Interpretive Trailmaking in the Historic Health Landscape of the Sadgeri Plateau [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1593626779552787

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Coleman, Sarah. Terrain Cure: New Approaches to Interpretive Trailmaking in the Historic Health Landscape of the Sadgeri Plateau. 2020. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1593626779552787.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Coleman, Sarah. "Terrain Cure: New Approaches to Interpretive Trailmaking in the Historic Health Landscape of the Sadgeri Plateau." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1593626779552787

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1593626779552787
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.