Waterfront come arena di rigenerazione urbana place-based: la riscoperta del genius loci "liquido"

The waterfront and the reclaimed old port areas have provided, in the last decades of the XX Century, "large tracts of development close to existing urban centres, in some cases enabling major extensions to the core" (Malone, 1996). It has been seen as investment opportunity by the major international players and as planning and design arena for experimenting global and standardized architectures and urban design. In the new millennium, economic crisis, globalization impacts, cultural diversity, environmental and social awareness have provided a renewed scenario in which models of waterfront redevelopment typical of the 80s and 90s have been critically discussed, opening new place-based perspectives. The current visions have been nurtured by economic players and communities awareness about the needs of activating place-based regeneration processes in terms of social innovation opportunities and genius loci valorization. The "liquid" identity of water cities, fed by multiple cultural cross-pollinations, offer the opportunity of capturing both endogenous resources and global flows. This trend is manifested in different cases of complex regeneration projects dedicated to increase the resilience and the ecological equilibrium of the coastal areas, to implement circular economy approaches in the life-cycle of the port areas, to enhance social empowerment and community engagement in valorizing the genius loci. In the paper the experiences of New York, Belfast and Antwerp will be briefly introduces in order to address the above topics.