Exploring the Spaces between City and Sea

Land has traditionally been conceived as a stable environment and the sea as a dynamic, changing space. Today, however, the situation of climate emergency has made it necessary to reconsider these shoreline spaces and question this dichotomy in the understanding that it is ever more important to think about this reality from the standpoint of constant interactions between land and sea. The coastal city has, in fact, always been a great space of exchange where flows of resources, people, and cultures have crossed the territories between the aquatic and terrestrial environments. Likewise, now that they must deal with today’s climate challenges, the two spaces are also deeply interlinked.

As the distinction between land and water has become increasingly blurred, traditional approaches to planning in these spaces have also been changing to incorporate new perspectives in which the complex metabolism of shorelines takes centre stage. They must now imagine new future scenarios in which sustainability and coexistence with other species become possible. All this means that coastal regions are a laboratory of opportunities for rethinking urban life in the future, and new, well-balanced ways of living and coexisting.

Exploring the physical, environmental, and cultural dimensions, this seminar offers insights into the challenges of and opportunities inherent in coastal areas. Local and international specialists will come together in order to recognise and understand common points, investigate complexities, and look at ways of overcoming the physical and cultural barriers at the intersection of land and water.

9.30 – 11.15 | New Perspectives on Sea-City Interactions

From the historical, geographic, and cultural standpoints, this session will consider the new theoretical perspectives on coasts as spaces of flows and exchange, and also the main challenges they will have to face in the present situation of climate emergency.

Speakers: Vittore Negretto, Anna Aslaug Lund, Gabi Martínez, Carole Diop. Moderated by: Paolo De Martino.

Vittore Negretto. Architect, research manager and university lecturer that holds a MSc in Architecture and Sustainability and a PhD in urban studies and resilience systems from the Iuav University of Venice.

Anna Aslaug Lund. Landscape architect. She works at the University of Copenhagen, where she conducts research on climate adaptation of coastal landscapes.

Gabi Martínez. Gabi Martínez, who is considered to be a revitalising influence in Spanish travel writing, is also known for his nature writing. 

Carole Diop. Dakar-based architect, Carole Diop is a graduated of the École Nationale de Architecture Paris Val de Seine. 

Paolo De Martino. Research at University IUAV of Venice and Teacher at the Department of Architecture of TU Delft. He is a member of the PortCityFutures research group. 

11.45 – 13.30 | Planning of Coastal Regions in Times of Climate Emergency

With a fresh look at the complexity of shoreline spaces, this session will consider how to approach the design of coastal cities and present possible solutions from the fields of architecture, engineering, and urban planning.

Speakers: Iñaki Ábalos, Michelangelo Russo, Francesc Magrinyà, and Alankrita Sarkar. Moderated by: Marina Cervera. 

Iñaki Ábalos. Architect founder of Ábalos+Sentkiewicz since 2006, an international architecture office settled in Madrid (Spain), Cambridge (USA) and Shanghai (China). 

Michelangelo Russo. Professor of Urban Planning, director of DiARC. 

Francesc Magrinyà. Engineer and urbanist. Associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), he is coordinator of the research group ÈXIT. 

Alankrita Sarkar. Spatial Planner and Research Coordinator at Vereniging Deltametropool.

Marina Cervera. Executive Director of the Barcelona International Landscape Biennial.

15.00 – 17.00 | Exploring the Future in Coastal Cities

This workshop will explore the future of coastal cities through joint reflection and design by means of artificial intelligence.

Organised by: Paolo De Martino, Vittore Negretto, and Vittoria Ridolfi.

Vittoria Ridolfi. Urban planner and researcher at the IUAV University of Venice. 

This workshop has capacity for 35 people. To register, you must write to: coordinacio.debats.urbans-cccb.org.

This is event is programmed as part of “Cities and Sea”, a series of debates of the Cultural Regatta, the programme of activities promoted by the Barcelona City Council on the occasion of the holding of the America’s Cup in the city.