Discovering Site-Specific Qualities in Venice and Marseille

Henrik Reeh

Discovering Site-Specific Qualities in Venice and Marseille

Department of Arts and Cultural Studies

Abstract

When “site-specificity” becomes a central value in city and harbor transfor-mation, it soon proves necessary to address the ways in which scholars and professionals actually come to determine site-specific qualities in urban fab-rics and social life. How are certain traits and habits discovered, and how may they be justified as indispensable elements in a refashioning of harbor areas to the benefit of urban culture?
The present study provides answers the above questions by means of observations from two South-European cities in which site-specificity and harbor areas are closely related. For centuries, both of these cities – Venice and Marseille – have forged long-term and intimate symbolic relationships between surrounding waters and diverse harbor functions. Today, encoun-ters with such urban spaces and practices invite the visiting researchers to single out particular and maybe unexpected aspects in urban fabric and con-temporary life. Thanks to site-specific features, self-reflexive approaches to harbor transformation may develop.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Site-Specific Design : Driving Force for Harbour Transformation
Editors	Lisa Diedrich, Andrea Kahn, Caroline Dahl
Number of pages	29
Commissioning body	Sveriges Landbrugsuniversitet (SLU), Alnarp
ISBN (Print)	978-91-576-8917-7
Publication status	Submitted - 2015

Keywords

Faculty of Humanities

Cite this

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title = "Discovering Site-Specific Qualities in Venice and Marseille",

abstract = "When “site-specificity” becomes a central value in city and harbor transfor-mation, it soon proves necessary to address the ways in which scholars and professionals actually come to determine site-specific qualities in urban fab-rics and social life. How are certain traits and habits discovered, and how may they be justified as indispensable elements in a refashioning of harbor areas to the benefit of urban culture?The present study provides answers the above questions by means of observations from two South-European cities in which site-specificity and harbor areas are closely related. For centuries, both of these cities – Venice and Marseille – have forged long-term and intimate symbolic relationships between surrounding waters and diverse harbor functions. Today, encoun-ters with such urban spaces and practices invite the visiting researchers to single out particular and maybe unexpected aspects in urban fabric and con-temporary life. Thanks to site-specific features, self-reflexive approaches to harbor transformation may develop.",

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AB - When “site-specificity” becomes a central value in city and harbor transfor-mation, it soon proves necessary to address the ways in which scholars and professionals actually come to determine site-specific qualities in urban fab-rics and social life. How are certain traits and habits discovered, and how may they be justified as indispensable elements in a refashioning of harbor areas to the benefit of urban culture?The present study provides answers the above questions by means of observations from two South-European cities in which site-specificity and harbor areas are closely related. For centuries, both of these cities – Venice and Marseille – have forged long-term and intimate symbolic relationships between surrounding waters and diverse harbor functions. Today, encoun-ters with such urban spaces and practices invite the visiting researchers to single out particular and maybe unexpected aspects in urban fabric and con-temporary life. Thanks to site-specific features, self-reflexive approaches to harbor transformation may develop.

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