The Architecture of Seaside Promenades as Threshold. A Mediterranean case.

The Spanish Mediterranean coast has a high degree of urbanization due to intense littoralization. During the second half of the 20th century, the seaside promenade emerged as an urban element meant to organize and protect the coastal environment. By defining the edge of coastal settlements, the promenade became the solid articulation between two different environmental rationales — of the rigid built system and of the natural, dynamic system of the seaside. Thus, the promenade has represented the main architectural and urban element of transition that has guided the artificialization and confinement of beach-dune sedimentary structures.
At the same time, the touristic and second-home dispersed settlements where urban centers were lacking, the coastal landscape, the beach and the parallel promenade have become the most relevant public spaces. The role of the seaside promenade as a public space provoked a constant intensification of use becoming through time a rigid and complex space. Due to the impetus of the recently launched democratic period, and the formal and conceptual freedom of Postmodernism, in many interventions since the 1980s, the promenade has been frequently identified with “signature architecture”, yet forgetting the dynamic conditions of the coastal border.
This research analyses a selection of representative promenades of the Catalan Mediterranean coast from their implementation to their current state, looking into their territorial, urban, architectural and material configuration, along with their consequences upon the delimitation between a rigid system of the settlements and a dynamic system of nature. Spatial transformations through time due to contextual changes (climatic, economic and social) are highlighted. Local, regional and national archives, orthophotos, and site visits are used as graphic sources of information in presenting the evolution of the architecture of promenades.