Sea and the city: maritime identity for urban sustainable regeneration

The extraordinary shape of seaside cities - that we can better appreciate from the sea - is the result of the synthesis between urban culture and maritime culture. This harmonious union of maritime and urban cultures offers a different point of view that is full of charm and semantic values. Seaside cities - in particular port cities - have been a really central theme in architectural and urban debate of the last few decades. The suggestion behind the research is that to understand coastal and port cities we should move our point of view from the mainland to the sea. Only if we referred to maritime culture we could really enter into urban culture of sea cities. The contribution describes theoretic and methodological results of activities that, since 2009, the Group "City and Architecture" of the National Research Council of Italy has carried out about the relationship between city and sea. The starting point The extraordinary shape of seaside cities - that we can better appreciate from the sea - is the result of the synthesis between urban culture and maritime culture. This harmonious union of maritime and urban cultures offers a different point of view that is full of charm and semantic values. Seaside cities - in particular port cities - have been a really central theme in architectural and urban debate of the last few decades. The suggestion behind the research is that to understand coastal and port cities we should move our point of view from the mainland to the sea. Only if we referred to maritime culture we could really enter into urban culture of sea cities. The contribution describes theoretic and methodological results of activities that, since 2009, the Group "City and Architecture" of the National Research Council of Italy has carried out about the relationship between city and sea. The starting pointThe extraordinary shape of seaside cities - that we can better appreciate from the sea - is the result of the synthesis between urban culture and maritime culture. This harmonious union of maritime and urban cultures offers a different point of view that is full of charm and semantic values. Seaside cities - in particular port cities - have been a really central theme in architectural and urban debate of the last few decades. The suggestion behind the research is that to understand coastal and port cities we should move our point of view from the mainland to the sea. Only if we referred to maritime culture we could really enter into urban culture of sea cities. The contribution describes theoretic and methodological results of activities that, since 2009, the Group "City and Architecture" of the National Research Council of Italy has carried out about the relationship between city and sea. The starting point is considering the maritime interpretation of seaside cities as a relevant issue for an innovative research related to urban planning and design in coastal urban areas. The first phase of the research project is concerned with an original multidisciplinary methodology based on a mindful maritime re-interpretation of architectures and urban spaces and, generally, of coastal urban areas. The second phase is aimed to refer the research results to real case studies with the broad involvement of multidisciplinary scholars, stakeholders and policy. The approach has permitted an original review of the waterfront renewal processes that have been in ever greater number in the last fifty years. The object is to define innovative methodologies and strategies to valorize the maritime identity as key tool for urban sustainable regeneration of sea cities.