Bluespace: a typological matrix for port cities

Abstract

The sea covers more than 70% of the Earth's surface. Now for the first time in history more than half the world's people live in cities and many of the world's most populated conurbations are located on the ocean periphery. Climate change is making littoral zones a potentially productive location for the development of new forms of urban space in coastal cities. Increased urbanisation and the foregrounding of the coastal condition make the association between cities and the sea one of the most important environmental juxtapositions of the 21st century. The aim of this paper is to re-theorise the collision of the public realm and the sea edge, and provide a range of design precedents for this emerging urban space phenomenon. The paper will introduce the concept of ‘bluespace’ and define a matrix with nine instances of how urban space and sea space combine to produce distinct public space types in port cities. Case studies of each type will be presented and discussed in detail with reference to textual and representational descriptions of the space in question.