The Harbour and the City: converging parallels or equidistant divergences?

Abstract

Our study aims to regain the coastal urban area of the estern zone of Naples, at present occupied by the commercial Port - that can't be relocated or opened to the public - to restore the perceptive possibilities of the sea, as for the denied glance, with integrations and/or improvements to the already planned solutions for the recovery of the area.

The solution adopted by the existing plan is for a partial pedestrianization from the Marinella's Park to the centre of the city, leaving unsolved the remain section up to the motorway entry. Our proposal is for a drastic traffic block at the East Gate of Naples using the East harbour instead of filling it up, to realize an automated huge underground  car park, leaving unchanged the surface space for the harbour activities. The Car Park can be accessed directly from the motorway avoiding in this way the traffic congestion in via Marina, that even now is unmanageable and impracticable.

At the same time, to ensure  pedestrian access, direct and with definite times, to the central areas redeveloped for tourism and leisure activities  (Stazione Marittima-piazza Municipio), our proposal provides for the creation of a light Monorail along  the borderline of the port. A work that does not change the characteristic aspect of the city, twisting and turning along all the gate of the port with its reticular metal structure and apt to blend completely in with the port facilities. From  the monorail coaches it will  possible to perceive the sea, as for the height of the rail plan, with an original view of the Gulf, again dominant element of urban morphology.

The redevelopment of Marinella's Park is an additional opportunity to enhance the perceptive contact with the sea and its symbolic charge, overcoming an early conception of flat Park and imaging instead a Sloping Green - and below it, covered spaces for sports facilities absolutely lacking in the area- with a sweet slope that  ends on a roof terrace and evokes the landscape suggestions of the nineteenth-century Villa del Popolo restoring the relationship with the sea, citizens and turists.