Waterfronts Revisited ─ European Ports in a Historic and Global Perspective

Waterfronts Revisited addresses the historical evolution of the relationship between port and city and re-examines waterfront development by looking at the urban territory and historical city in their complexity and entirety.

By identifying guiding values, urban patterns and typologies, and local needs and experiences, cities can break the isolation of the harbor by reconnecting it to the urban structure; its functions, spaces and forms. Using the UNESCO recommendation for the "Historic Urban Landscape" as the guiding concept and a tool for managing urban preservation and change, this collection of essays illustrates solutions to issues of globalisation, commercialization of space and commoditisation of culture in waterfront development. Through sixteen selected case studies, Editors Marichela Sepe and Heleni Porfyriou offer planners and urban designers a broad spectrum of alternative solutions to waterfront regeneration interventions and redevelopments, addressing sustainability, regional cultural diversity, and the debate between conservation and transformation.

Marichela Sepe is a Professor at the University of Naples and works for the IRISS, the Institute for Research in Innovation and Services for Development of Naples of the Italian National Research Council. She is Vice-President of the Urban Planning Italian National Insitute – Campania section, and is the author of Planning and Place in the City (Routledge 2013).

Heleni Porfyriou is a researcher at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche(CNR) – Istituto per la Conservazione e la Valorizzazione dei Beni Culturali, and was the coordinator for the 2012 Waterfronts Revisited conference. She is a member of the Editorial board of Planning Perspectives.