In the era of globalization and transnational flows, the multiplicity of borders in urban planning and landscape imaginaries is a lens to illustrate changing configurations of contexts. Furthermore, «today fast rail links, airports, and motorways are what make cities grow. ‘Magnets’ like these shape and solidify the urban field into one of a number of scapes. We shall describe the distortions borders bring to the built environment as ‘border solidifications’ or borderscapes. » (Harbers, 2005) From these standpoints, it is possible to state the potentiality of borders as fields of research in presence of big infrastructural complexes, as ports, and grasp their dynamic and symbolic characters. Between a city and its port a boundary exists: a consequence of the first port consortiums that were set up as independent entities from the 1950s internationally. Though the urban-port border is a legal separation, «the port-city interface may be described as a system, or as a concept, or as a series of mechanisms that link port and city. » (Hoyle 2006). This intermediate zone is a ‘threshold’ (Crotti 2000) with mutable geometries and patterns that vary according to multiple factors. The urban-port threshold is a particular form of landscape, a result of processes of global trade and production. As well as a typology of borderscape, it is also a clear example of ‘logistics landscape’ (Waldheim 2016). In many port-cities, indeed, we can detect a system of operative territories gathered along the border and codify the ‘threshold heritage’ as a common category in the port-city plot. This built patrimony, often belonging to both sides, consists in in-between and on-hold areas, former silos or disposal power plants. Exploring this border organism offers opportunities to set up strategies for the urban-port entity and to shape various threshold models, where is embodied the relationship between power, aesthetic and memory.
The Urban-Port Threshold: models and strategies
Moretti, B.
2018-01-01
Abstract
In the era of globalization and transnational flows, the multiplicity of borders in urban planning and landscape imaginaries is a lens to illustrate changing configurations of contexts. Furthermore, «today fast rail links, airports, and motorways are what make cities grow. ‘Magnets’ like these shape and solidify the urban field into one of a number of scapes. We shall describe the distortions borders bring to the built environment as ‘border solidifications’ or borderscapes. » (Harbers, 2005) From these standpoints, it is possible to state the potentiality of borders as fields of research in presence of big infrastructural complexes, as ports, and grasp their dynamic and symbolic characters. Between a city and its port a boundary exists: a consequence of the first port consortiums that were set up as independent entities from the 1950s internationally. Though the urban-port border is a legal separation, «the port-city interface may be described as a system, or as a concept, or as a series of mechanisms that link port and city. » (Hoyle 2006). This intermediate zone is a ‘threshold’ (Crotti 2000) with mutable geometries and patterns that vary according to multiple factors. The urban-port threshold is a particular form of landscape, a result of processes of global trade and production. As well as a typology of borderscape, it is also a clear example of ‘logistics landscape’ (Waldheim 2016). In many port-cities, indeed, we can detect a system of operative territories gathered along the border and codify the ‘threshold heritage’ as a common category in the port-city plot. This built patrimony, often belonging to both sides, consists in in-between and on-hold areas, former silos or disposal power plants. Exploring this border organism offers opportunities to set up strategies for the urban-port entity and to shape various threshold models, where is embodied the relationship between power, aesthetic and memory.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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