Waterfront redevelopment. Comparison experiences

Abstract

The new territorial dynamics of the late twentieth century have led to the depopulation of rural areas of the inland, on the other hand to the development of coastal conurbations, with the consequent alteration of the urban fabric and the identity and recognisability of many waterfronts. A look from the sea can help to capture more objectively these landscaping, urban and functional transformations, and can represent for researchers an innovative reading key, by which to design a sustainable regeneration that can restore, in coastal cities, the balance between the environment and the built and the common maritime identity that, over the centuries, has been strengthened through the interactions between environmental, social and economic dimensions. The comparison of some waterfront regeneration projects implemented in two cities that express different types: Barcelona the mediterranean and New York the oceanic, confirm that requalification interventions, even in the coastal strip, are an effective tool for renewal and revitalization, provided, however, that it does not merely offer standardised solutions, decontested and without references to the pre-existing. So it can be referred to true regeneration when the project is able to relate to urban fabric and the milieu through social participation.