Frente de Mar de Espinho - Quando o Mar e a Terra Fazem (e Desfazem) a Cidade

Abstract

Fluvial and maritime cities developed according with the rivers, lakes, seas or oceans next to which they grew and still today we can feel that this growth didn3;t cease. The history of the cities has developed according to the need that Man had to relate more or less with the aquatic environment. First, by a matter of obvious issue of survival, then by a commercial matter and transportation need and, last, by a matter of leisure and tourism. We notice today the increasing search of the littoral zone, the coast, the "sun, sand and sea"2. But an over search of a place in the sun can bring innumerable urban and also environmental problems. The objective of this work is to make a study about waterfronts, with the specific object of study, the city of Espinho, as a result of the addictions and subtractions between the sea and the land. All the coastal border of the city has been physically moulded attending to the sea attacks, but also to men3;s actions, in a tight relation of interdependence, that dictated new functionalities, that changed the look of the surroundings, as well as a new architecture of the landscape. Environmental concerns and organization of the spaces used for summer holidays are also related, as well as the factors that settled the evolutive course of the growth of this city. Man has to be conscious that waterfronts establish a small part of the total area of land and, for that reason, its plan, should be thought with special attention. The cities that exist in contact with water should have a symbiotic relationship towards the sea or the rivers, so that better conditions of habitableness, of work and even of leisure can be created. For that, it is necessary to think the city and see the sea as if they were just one element. In the XXI century, we need to implement a politic, cultural and social positive agenda turned up to a constructive vision of the city and the water as an essential resource and shared with a significant role in the materialization of a common story.