PUBLIC SPACES: COMMUNITY AND USAGE An important part of what made European urban life grew out of ancient Mediterranean culture. Its influence can still be felt today. [ + ]
PUBLIC SPACES: COMMUNITY AND USAGE
An important part of what made European urban life grew out of ancient Mediterranean culture. Its influence can still be felt today. Until recently, the Mediterranean Arc cities found a way to preserve an enjoyment of public space grounded in a long history in which a significant part of private life has found a home in the streets. The amount of time given to conversation – as much in the streets as in public squares, doorways, terraces, balconies, etc. – from early in the morning to late at night, lent a particular intensity to the way public space was shared by the entire community and created a vibrant atmosphere which is now fading away. In the evening, in Genoa and Barcelona, only the oldest residents set up their folding chairs in doorways, that subtle liminal space between public and private, spending the entire evening watching passersby and chatting with their neighbours. The fundamental changes brought about by post-war town planning and the extension of suburbs from the 1960s seriously affected this culture of conversation. Southern cities have been, without a doubt, more adversely affected by recent urban developments than those in the North. The damage has been far greater.
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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
[ - ]TOWARDS A SENSORY METROPOLIS Everyone has his or her own image of a Mediterranean city. Above all, it is a series of sensations: the intense blue sky, the sparkling sea, the pine trees swaying in the breeze, the laundry hanging from the corners of apartment windows, the particular sound of the wind, the clacking of petanque balls, the too-noisy motorbikes, the conversations that float through the air until late at night, the smells that waft amidst the streets. [ + ]
TOWARDS A SENSORY METROPOLIS
Everyone has his or her own image of a Mediterranean city. Above all, it is a series of sensations: the intense blue sky, the sparkling sea, the pine trees swaying in the breeze, the laundry hanging from the corners of apartment windows, the particular sound of the wind, the clacking of petanque balls, the too-noisy motorbikes, the conversations that float through the air until late at night, the smells that waft amidst the streets. Impressions such as these do not easily find a place in manuals of urbanism. They are, however, what makes Mediterranean cities so unique and beautiful. Well beyond their territorial and administrative divisions, cities in the Mediterranean arc share similar cultural and experiential features. From Genova to Barcelona, through Nice, Marseille and Montpellier, the ten million inhabitants of the area each embrace the same landscape—that is, one that faces the sea, and is most often flanked by the pronounced reliefs of the hinterland. They bask in the same climate that creates similarities in their rhythms and their daily preoccupations.
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BY THE WATER In cities by the sea, the presence of water appeals to all the senses – sounds, smells, tastes, light… – it cannot be disassociated from its atmosphere. It qualifies the density and intensity of the metropolitan climate within the Mediterranean Arc, an invitation to consider the infinite possibilities for play, travel and dreams. [ + ]
BY THE WATER
In cities by the sea, the presence of water appeals to all the senses – sounds, smells, tastes, light… – it cannot be disassociated from its atmosphere. It qualifies the density and intensity of the metropolitan climate within the Mediterranean Arc, an invitation to consider the infinite possibilities for play, travel and dreams.
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