Maritime culture and urban culture in Mediterranean cities: Barcelona, Marseille, Valencia, Naples

The contribution proposes to consider the cities on the sea as the expression of those urban communities who base their identity on the relationship with the sea and sailing, in a successful fusion between urban and maritime culture. The suggestion behind our research is that to understand coastal and port cities we must move our point of view from land to sea, starting from the maritime culture because it reveals urban and architectonic visions that are rich in semantic value. Can we reinterpret maritime tradition for innovative strategies that join maritime culture and urban culture in contemporary cities? Today there are many examples of architecture and urban spaces that interact with the sea, inspired by the relationship between the community and the navigation. The proposed case-studies show this interest for the "maritimity" in urban waterfront redevelopment, aiming to stimulate new development policies, able to make economic, social and cultural impacts.