THE COAST AS LANDSCAPE Here, like elsewhere, unchecked urban developments over the past thirty years have profoundly altered the landscape. However, the motley chaos of infrastructure and buildings has not eclipsed the powerful leitmotif of the coastal horizon and the enduring presence of the landscape: the Mediterranean Arc can be understood without nostalgia as a sensory conurbation strewn with omnipresent fragments of landscape. [ + ]
THE COAST AS LANDSCAPE
Here, like elsewhere, unchecked urban developments over the past thirty years have profoundly altered the landscape. However, the motley chaos of infrastructure and buildings has not eclipsed the powerful leitmotif of the coastal horizon and the enduring presence of the landscape: the Mediterranean Arc can be understood without nostalgia as a sensory conurbation strewn with omnipresent fragments of landscape.
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MEDITERRANEAN SQUARE Let us give the sea, which is at the center and not outside the Barcelona-Genoa entity, a name: Mediterranean Square. Let’s give it a shape: a magnificent esplanade, turned towards the north, and bordered by all the built decor that compliments all the region’s physical features. [ + ]
MEDITERRANEAN SQUARE
Let us give the sea, which is at the center and not outside the Barcelona-Genoa entity, a name: Mediterranean Square. Let’s give it a shape: a magnificent esplanade, turned towards the north, and bordered by all the built decor that compliments all the region’s physical features. In the background, the mountains lend consistency and composure to the landscape—exactly the opposite of sfumato painting, where the background fades off into the distance. Let’s give it a flâneur, because the urban doesn’t exist without occasions for ambling: a sailor, a seafarer, or better yet, a tireless swimmer that moves freely (though here again, we’ll have to use our imagination, because our Square mustn’t be monopolized by jet skiers, outboard motors and/or yachts, which would make it into a nearly-privatized game board), and who explores places and panoramas from the point of view of the sea-esplanade; back and forth, to and fro. Lastly, let’s give it a role: it is the common space, the one which, without insisting on cohesion, will imbue the urban froth with a specific sort of atmosphere and personality. Of course, such a froth bears the traces of generic globalized urbanism, but that certain je ne sais quoi, that near-everything that distinguishes it and makes it unlike any other, is sought and found in MediterraneanSquare. It is there that each person is able to assert his or her life space within the vast assemblage; to feel “here” and not anywhere else, and to recognise himor herself as co-inhabiting with others this same coastal forum.
Michel Lussault
[ - ]THE CITY AS LANDSCAPE The Côte d’Azur landscape is often regarded as a disaster: the urban developments of the past fifty years have done irreparable damage to magnificent views, the holiday retreats of a “happy few”, such as shown by Alfred Hitchcock in To Catch a Thief (1955) where stunning landscapes act as a backdrop to the cabriolet-bound adventures of Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. Further West, the unspoiled lagoons and wilderness of the Languedoc region were invaded by new resorts for mass tourism with its galaxy of camp sites, in accordance with government policies. [ + ]
THE CITY AS LANDSCAPE
The Côte d’Azur landscape is often regarded as a disaster: the urban developments of the past fifty years have done irreparable damage to magnificent views, the holiday retreats of a “happy few”, such as shown by Alfred Hitchcock in To Catch a Thief (1955) where stunning landscapes act as a backdrop to the cabriolet-bound adventures of Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. Further West, the unspoiled lagoons and wilderness of the Languedoc region were invaded by new resorts for mass tourism with its galaxy of camp sites, in accordance with government policies. The Mediterranean coast is seen nostalgically as a lost paradise, and we should take note of the damage caused by a certain type of urbanization. But it is possible to adopt a different perspective and see the Arc extending from Genoa to Barcelona as a vast, 10 million person conurbation with the sea and the mountains for a horizon, strewn throughout with fragments of Mediterranean landscape. A sensual urban landscape where city and landscape are as one. We have chosen to adopt this perspective, as it is the reality experienced by the people who live there, but also because we see in it the potential to imagine a future for the development of this vast urban area.
[ - ]FRAGMENTED MOBILITY Apart from the motorway, transport infrastructure in the mediterranean Arc remains invasive without properly responding to challenges. The linear configuration of the motorway is an asset for weaving a dense and coherent network which includes all modes of transport: train, tram, boat, car sharing, bicycles, etc. [ + ]
FRAGMENTED MOBILITY
Apart from the motorway, transport infrastructure in the mediterranean Arc remains invasive without properly responding to challenges. The linear configuration of the motorway is an asset for weaving a dense and coherent network which includes all modes of transport: train, tram, boat, car sharing, bicycles, etc. A diversity of routes throughout the region could be travelled in a fluid and energy-efficient manner.
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