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.
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