Arabic

Manfredi Nicoletti

Studio Nicoletti Associati, Italy

Key aspects of Waterfront development planning

The waterfront summarises, in the most dramatic way, the timeless confrontation between the natural and the artificial, between nature and architecture. On one side extremely sophisticated and aggressive artefacts on the other the calm, imposing, indifferent divine vastness of the natural world.  The two antithetic configurations of our material experience face each other. The waterfront is the incandescent line in between a separation which is physical and symbolic at the same time. Whatever you build on a waterfront it can not be either neutral or banal. Such an exceptional confrontation requires strong and highly metaphorical words. Architecture, which represents the strongest and most imposing symbolic language mankind has ever invented, must find the proper way to express this unique event. This is what we intended to achieve with our projects. There is no doubt that there are many different - and ever - contrasting ways to solve the problem, but certainly it is impossible to assert the existence of typical typologies to respond to this theme. Indeed, although we can speak - in general - of waterfront urbanism or architecture, we must recognise that each case is - in fact – a case in itself, an unrepeatable amalgamations of millions of different and specific factors. A waterfront is an exceptional architectural and human event. A French poet, Baudelaire, has stated “the free man will always adore and search for the sea, he is mirroring himself in the sea. In its infinity he can contemplate the infinity of his own soul”. A waterfront is an irresistible attraction for everyone, more than a physical place, it is a place of the mind (of the spirit). A waterfront can be destroyed by banalities, commonplaces and vulgarities, but it can become an extraordinary occasion for triggering creative imaginations and audacious statements, a social magnet for highly exciting entertainments as well as for contemplative thoughts. I have designed a few waterfronts in Italy, France and Malaysia. Every design experience was an adventure different from any other, every one was a genuine discovery of an ever changing confrontation between human and natural forces