Architecture as Educational Narrative: Mapping The Visitor's Learning Journey In An Agro-tourism Centre
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69968/ijisem.2026v5iS291-96Keywords:
Agritourism, Spatial Narrative, Visitor Experience, Experiential Learning, Interpretive ArchitectureAbstract
This paper explores how architectural space can function as an educational narrative within an Agro-tourism centre. While agritourism in India is growing, most farm environments rely on guided tours or verbal explanations, leaving the spatial experience underutilized as a learning medium. This study examines how visitors perceive, move through, and learn from the spatial sequence of an operational farm. The research traces moments of curiosity, confusion, and engagement along the visitor journey. The findings reveal that specific architectural cues-thresholds, material changes, sensory elements, and node placements- significantly influence what visitors notice and remember. The study proposes design principles for narrative-based Agro-tourism planning, highlighting the potential of architecture to communicate farming processes, ecological values, and rural culture more effectively. The work demonstrates that learning on farms is not only program-driven but deeply shaped by spatial sequence
References
[1]. Falk, J. H. & Dierking, L. D. (2013) The Museum Experience Revisited. New York: Routledge.
[2]. Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
[3]. Norberg-Schulz, C. (1980) Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli.
[4]. Pallasmaa, J. (2005) The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. Chichester: Wiley.
[5]. Tschumi, B. (1996) Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[6]. Louv, R. (2008) Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books.
[7]. Throsby, D. (2001) Economics and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[8]. Nowacki, M. M. (2021) Heritage interpretation as a tool for sustainable development. Sustainability, 13(9), pp. 1–15. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095021
[9]. Ballantyne, R. & Packer, J. (2011) Using tourism free-choice learning experiences to promote environmentally sustainable behaviour. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 19(6), pp. 725–742. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2010.541547
[10]. Lane, B. (2009) Rural tourism: An overview. The SAGE Handbook of Tourism Studies, pp. 354–370. London: SAGE Publications.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Author
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Re-users must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as the original work is properly credited.
How to Cite
7
