Public ground as coastal defence: imagining the Mediterranean beachfront by the Atlantic

Abstract

The article explores the role of public ground composition design as a defence element for coastal agglomerations vulnerable to mean sea level rise in extreme weather events scenarios. It addresses one of the pilot case studies of the [ENTRA]MAR Urban form intertwined with the sea research project, Quarteira, a coastal city located in the Algarve region of southern Portugal, which is vulnerable to flooding and erosion phenomena. The article provides an opportunity to systematise the reading and interpretation phases and also the research by design phase based on scenario development that was conducted during the fourth-year design studio at the Lisbon School of Architecture of the Universidade de Lisboa and therefore, to share its preliminary results on “imagining the Mediterranean beachfront by the Atlantic”. Attributing Mediterranean values and characteristics to Quarteira involves, as Braudel wrote in “Les Mémoires de la Méditerranée”, observing the coastal landscapes over and over again, until the physical and urban characteristics are eloquently revealed and named. Finally, it is underlined the need to design the space between land and sea based on the inherited memory of the coastal landscape and the operative role the public ground design <may have as coastal defence. The article explores the role of public ground composition design as a defence element for coastal agglomerations vulnerable to sea level rise in extreme weather events scenarios. It addresses one of the pilot case studies of the [ENTRA]MAR Urban form intertwined with the sea research project, Quarteira, a coastal city located in the Algarve region of southern Portugal, which is vulnerable to flooding and erosion phenomena. The article provides an opportunity to systematise the reading and interpretation phases and also the research by-design phase based on scenario development that was conducted during the fourth-year design studio at the Lisbon School of Architecture of the Universidade de Lisboa and therefore, to share its preliminary results on "imagining the Mediterranean beachfront by the Atlantic". Attributing Mediterranean values and characteristics to Quarteira involves, as Braudel wrote in Les Mémoires de la Méditerranée, observing the coastal landscapes over and over again, until the physical and urban characteristics are eloquently revealed and named. Finally, it is underlined the need to design the space between land and sea based on the inherited memory of the coastal landscape and the operative role the public ground design may have as coastal defence.