LAND AND SEA IN TRANSITION
Beyond the coastal defences in the Middle-Adriatic Sea

Theme
The land-sea transition space is a vulnerable and critical setting. It stands as a place for observation that allows to investigate the on-going transformations of coastal cities and the territorial fragilities resulting from the current environmental crisis.
The land-sea transition space is a movable boundary, a porous territory, a geographical and cultural interface. Seen through an empirical gaze, it can reveal a complex map of values – related to its morphology, landscape, society, economy and culture – that are often disregarded in the ordinary management of coastal areas.
The land-sea transition space is also a design device for envisioning habitats that may support a renewed coexistence between humans and environments, economies and lands, nature and culture.
A proper reading of the land-sea transition space requires the definition of interpreting categories and narrative strategies that effectively convey the multiple values of a fragile space awaiting a project that integrates ecological resilience and regeneration.

The land-sea transition space may be looked at with reference to the maritime infrastructures for coastal and harbour defence. These provide with the tools to design land-sea interactions within a framework that rectifies the sectoral and self-referred approaches that usually inform planning and design.
Piers, breakwater reefs, dikes, cliff defences are all examples of pure engineering. They are built with the sole purpose of defending some stretch of coast, an estuary, a harbour basin. Accordingly, they belong to a popular collective imagery associated with exploitative policies that treat the coast as an economic resource.
Maritime infrastructures are “dead works”, a phrase used in naval engineering to designate the part of the ship that is above the water and therefore has no role in keeping the hull afloat. Similarly, coastal defence infrastructures display a submerged part, which is involved in absorbing the kinetic energy of waves; as well as an emerged part, which is perpetually inert. Coastal defence infrastructures are “dead works”, because they are specialised and self-contained, too. The specificity of their design affects their shape and function, and reduces their potential for multiple uses and for adapting to the needs of towns and contexts.
Nonetheless, their proximity to coastal landscapes and urban areas inspires scenarios of land and sea integration. These may operate in order to enhance the resilience of coastal systems, which are increasingly compromised by the present climate crisis.
Such is the broad perspective informing themes for discussion and experimental projects in the Urban Designa and Planning Course provides in the 2023 Pescara Summer School from 29 agust to 09 semptember
The Abruzzo coast in the Middle-Adriatic Sea will serve as a case-study