Baths’ architectures facing the rise of ground level

Abstract

The great transformation of the coastal landscapes foreseeable in the coming decades, intensified by the effects of the so-called climate change, constitutes a field of study of growing interest for architecture. Beyond the serious impacts that may occur in the urbanized environment, this phenomenon offers an opportunity to rethink the relationship of coastal cities with their seafronts. This research focuses on the capacity of architecture to respond to the transformation of the coastal environment as a result of the rise in sea level for a specific type of resource: public spaces associated with seaside recreation (architectures, infrastructure or facilities for leisure bathers). The main strategies that influence this problem are described and catalogued in order to establish, from a global perspective, action strategies for particular cases.

This study is structured through a methodological sequence based on the search, collection and analysis of documentation and information on interventions in public spaces linked to seaside leisure. Each example is studied, redrawn and valued considering a series of parameters that affect the relationship between the urban environment and areas at risk of flooding. In this way, a conceptual framework can be developed that identifies and organizes different architectural projects affected by sea level rise through the parameterization of concepts applied to their design. The results extracted define extrapolated strategies that can help to redesign the seafront in the face of the new coastal paradigms that are predicted by climate change and the consequent rise in sea level