World heritage exhibition centre interpretation design

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The WHEC project is an exhibition about the World Heritage Area across eight national parks in the Greater Blue Mountains. The project applies interpretive techniques of landscape immersion and embedding content within an interior artificial environment. The significance and application of interpretation have increased in recent decades (Falk and Dierking 2000; Bitgood 2010) yet design techniques and models of practice remain under-theorised (Woodward 2009; Weiler 2005). In particular, the role of the contract designer and the influences on this role remain unexamined within the literature. In this case a multidisciplinary design team was contracted to a small organization with little infrastructure or experience in interpretation design, the designer role encompassing research, curatorship, design, writing and project development. Research Contribution The project contributes to new knowledge from practice in two key areas: 1. Experimental application of interpretive techniques and interrogation of how ideas about nature are communicated through design (Shani and Pizam 2011, Kellert 1997). The interpretive works incorporate diverse media at a cost of $450,000. 2. Exploration of the advantages and limitations of the designer taking a project developer role such as proposed by Kamien (2002). The public response to the WHEC has been overwhelmingly positive, as recorded in the centre's visitor book and other tourism media. The project was one of two case studies in my doctoral thesis. Research Significance The project was awarded through a rigorous competitive public tender based on a concept design, rationale and thematic framework proposal. Opened by actor Jack Thompson AM and Bob Debus MP, the resulting exhibition is among the foremost World Heritage interpretive centres in Australia.