Lookout point

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Grand Canyon Skywalk , 2007
The infinity pool on the roof of Marina Bay Sands , 2010

Under observation tower is meant consuming buildings or parts of buildings whose purpose is a charming visitors views to gain ( viewpoints ).

Structural matters

Lookout points can be simple terraces in the area or on a building , often secured with railings or walls. Particularly in the open mountain area, special self-supporting viewing platforms are built to offer a particularly spectacular deep view. Lookout towers , for example, are more elaborately constructed ; their purpose is usually to raise the viewing platform above the treetops. A more recent development is to integrate lookout points into other high-rise buildings, for example in accessible transmission towers and in exceptionally high skyscrapers to enjoy a wide view of the urban landscape, or even in technical structures such as bridges , dams or wind turbines . The skywalk (or skyway on buildings) is an extreme form , partly with a glass floor.

history

Lookout points are probably one of the most primal structures of man, the need to gain an overview is certainly older than sedentarism , and in security-relevant or warlike functions there are specially prepared sentry posts as well as hunting grounds (nowadays preserved in high seats ) also in nomadic people Cultures. The Old High German word warte itself can be found as early as the 8th century in the sense of 'peek-a-boo, post, watch, watch', and to wait is probably as related as to watch .

The Hanging Gardens of the Semiramis , wonders of the ancient world (romanticistic interpretation as the epitome of the "beautiful view")

Castles and other fortifications are usually in exposed locations and are used to monitor settlements or traffic routes. An open space (balconies, loggias, and covered verandas, front and roof terraces, presented arbours and söller) on such a building is one of its basic functions, and probably always served representative purposes. Such stately vantage points can already be found in pre-antiquity; they are an end in themselves in city palaces as well as in country castles . In the watchtower , the observation tower becomes a structural element of city ​​walls or border fortifications . An additional contribution is made by the fact that monuments are also often built in an unobstructed position, which means that monument sites also become lookout points and the lookout tower becomes an element of garden architecture . From the beginning of the modern era at the latest, the Belvedere ('beautiful / good view') has been an indispensable part of prestigious architecture as well as sophisticated living culture.

The Southern Gate of Heaven at Tai Shan (16th century)

The actual development into a lookout point in today's sense began - apart from the religious context of pilgrimage, such as the five sacred mountains of Daoism or the Monte de Gozo ('Mountain of Joy') on the Way of St. James - with the beginning of tourism in the 19th century. This makes the distance view a purely aesthetic experience for the observer (detached from the purpose-related function for an explicit observer). On the Rhine or in Saxon Switzerland as well as in the Alps, the alpine clubs mark out special vantage points, as do the tourist boards in the vicinity, and then also places on the coast. This makes the sight itself an attraction. Just as "beautiful view" becomes the central paradigm of tourism architecture ("sea view" or "alpine view syndrome" is exaggerated in the " balcony castle " of the 1960s), the vantage point as such becomes a fundamental tourist destination ( point of interest , POI / OVI), and thus an economic factor of a tourist region. This means that it is also necessary to make the vantage point as easy as possible to develop (paths / streets, parking spaces, cable cars), and also to secure it (railings, leveling), to improve it (forwards and upwards) and to enrich it (benches, information boards, rest stops etc.), which creates the lookout tower in the real sense.

  • Alpine and natural beauties lookout points

  • The Belvedér of Bynovec Castle in the Czech Elbe Valley, early 18th century.

  • Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe (Glockner view of the High Alpine Road), 1876, street 1932

  • Intensive development of the Rigi with mountain hotels and waiting areas (aerial photo around 1920)

The same applies to city ​​tourism (“city views”). The most recent development is extreme vistas from the world's tallest skyscrapers since the 2000s.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b wait. In: Digital dictionary of the German language . Accessed on November 17, 2019 As such, the word can be found in castle names such as Wartburg or Wartenfels , and entrenchments / observation systems such as Hohe Warte .
  2. ↑ a b Castle names such as Bellevue , Belvedere or Bonavista are found , which was also used as a hallway and place name from colonialism; see. on this for example Gerda Bödefeld, Berthold Hinz, Richard Harprath: The villas of Tuscany and their gardens. Series DuMont art travel guide , DuMont, 1991, ISBN 978-3-7701-2275-2 , page 262
  3. ↑ Another variant for technical purposes is the high standard in surveying.
  4. ↑ The hill on which you first see the destination, the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
  5. ↑ Or in tourism marketing: rooms with a view ; the expression "sea view syndrome" comes from Toni Breuer: Urbanization in Spain: Second home colonies for European pensioners. 8.1 in Felizitas Romeiss-Stracke (ed.): TourismusArchitektur: Baukultur as a success factor. Erich Schmidt Verlag, 2008 ISBN 978-3-503-10607-3 , reference p. 222 (whole article 218-230; limited preview in the Google book search).
  6. ↑ cf. about:
    Tendl: You want to go high? The 7 most spectacular skywalks in the world! checkfelix.com, November 30, 2011;
    Skywalk with a panoramic view of the abyss. The most spectacular glass viewing platforms in China and worldwide . chinareise.com (as of 2014);
    H.-W. Rodrian: The highest viewing platforms in the world . t-online.de, srt, May 4, 2015.