SEA-CITY: THE WATERFRONT OF NAPLES

Naples could be defined as a “postcard under glass”, which carries with it the image of a city unable to be felt at all, the scene of a social, functional, economic, cultural and environmental fracture. Each citizen brings in his heart a panoramic view of the coastline with its “treasures” which represent the background and backdrop element characterizing the Gulf: the sea. Posillipo buildings, castles, marine protected areas are part of the Neapolitan seafront, but at the same time are part of a “borderline” area that seems not to be linked to the rest of the City; these areas seem to be in the shadow for those people that are used to see the sea, but cannot live it for lack of activity and adequate services, that could connect the urban built area with the sea. The main reason is that there is not an adeguate information and that the lack of valorization given to the cultural, natural, archeological places causes an under development of Naples, which do not exploit its capabilities and potentialities. By setting oneself on the other side of the coastal line, and looking at the city from the sea, one would, today, require to rediscover the values that the Mediterranean offers, as an element able to linalool, connect, communicate, move, restore and enhance everything that today is seen and admired but not experienced and known for its history and its characters that have made the city of Naples one of the most beautiful in the world; not surprisingly, the succession of events, eras and dynasties, in Naples, have changed and characterized its urban stratigraphy, until today, with the ongoing construction, to have a sea-city relationship in which the two border lines , land and water, look each other’s but do not touch. The use of design strategies and design methodologies with specific interventions at zero impact through a bioclimatic approach, a study of the environmental parameters and a more extensive information may now restore the value, for long time missing, of this relationship. In several occasions, during the past few years, ideas and projects have been carried out forward for our Waterfront, as answer to Assignments, like that announced by Napolicreativa, La convivialità Urbana, or to International Workshops such as the “Identità Marittima per l’Interculturalità Urbana: Il Mare e la Città come Habitat di Pace” (Maritime Identity for the Urban Intercultural: the Sea and the City as Habitat for Peace) processed by the CNR; with the aim of expressing all this discomfort there were also artists like G. White and P. Valente with the work sutures (fig.1-2) made the physical requirement, the citizen, to live your own beach with the same ease with which it benefits from the mainland.¹ In this article we want to emphasize that the sustainability of the proposals implemented in different cultural activities, may favor a full appreciation of this fantastic waterfront in Naples.