Waterfronts in the Straits Port Areas, Between Architecture and Town Planning

The architecture and waterfronts of the straits are areas of environmental and landscape significance: coastal fronts on “fuzzy” limits, they are the last curtain of the existing city and the open fronts in a dialogue beyond. A strait has, by definition, the water and then the built-up area opposite. In the essay, which has the character of a literature review, we ask what the relationships of the land-sea borders are, what are the processes of transformation and management of architectural and urban dynamics. What are the speeds and possible spatio-temporal synchronies of visions and strategies. With reference to the straits of Europe, and particularly the Strait of Messina, one wonders if it is already possible to glimpse signs of a reorganisation of the territories in view of hypotheses of strengthening port realities or the realisation of a stable crossing.