a typological matrix for port cities

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Bluespace: a typological matrix for port cities

Diane Brand*

School of Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand

The sea covers more than 70% of the Earths surface. Now for the first time in history more than halfthe worlds people live in cities and many of the worlds most populated conurbations are located onthe ocean periphery. Climate change is making littoral zones a potentially productive location for thedevelopment of new forms of urban space in coastal cities. Increased urbanisation and the foregrounding ofthe coastal condition make the association between cities and the sea one of the most importantenvironmental juxtapositions of the 21st century. The aim of this paper is to re-theorise the collision of the

public realm and the sea edge, and provide a range of design precedents for this emerging urban spacephenomenon. The paper will introduce the concept of bluespace and define a matrix with nine instances ofhow urban space and sea space combine to produce distinct public space types in port cities. Case studies ofeach type will be presented and discussed in detail with reference to textual and representationaldescriptions of the space in question.URBAN DESIGNInternational (2007) 12, 6985. doi:10.1057/palgrave.udi.9000195

Keywords: port cities; harbours; waterfronts; public space; coastal development

Introduction

The sea covers more than 70% of the Earthssurface. Now for the first time in history morethan half the worlds people live in cities andmany of the worlds most populated conurbationsare located on the ocean periphery. Climatechange is making littoral zones a potentiallyproductive location for the development of newforms of urban space in coastal cities. Increasedurbanisation and the foregrounding of the coastalcondition make the association between cities andthe sea one of the most important environmental

juxtapositions of the 21st century. The aim ofthis paper is to re-theorise the collision of thepublic realm and the sea edge, and provide a rangeof design precedents for this emerging urbanspace phenomenon. The paper will introduce theconcept of bluespace and define a matrix withnine instances of how urban space and sea spacecombine to produce distinct public space typesin port cities. Case studies of each type will be

presented and discussed in detail with referenceto textual and representational descriptions of thespace in question.

Defining bluespace

Littoral refers to locations proximate to the seashore.The idea of a littoral society broadens the conceptto mean a community extending inward from thecoast with porous frontiers acting as filters throughwhich the salt of the sea is gradually replaced by thesilt of the land society (Pearson, 1985). This is awestern and continental view of the space underdiscussion with its privileging of the land mass.

Polynesian culture, which locates itself in an oceancovering one-third of the Earths surface, has forgenerations migrated across these vast spaces andviews the seascape quite differently:

According to early Tahitian accounts thesenavigators saw the Pacific Ocean as a vastwatery plain, joined around the edges of thehorizon by the layered spheres of the sky,which encircled its clusters of known islands. Itwas also a marae, a sacred place where people

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went to cleanse themselves in times of spiritualtrouble. (Salmond, 2003)

Literature dealing with port cities has typicallydefined the port in relation to its landed bound-aries rather than a space in its own right. Hoyle

(1967), Hoyle and Hilling (1970) and Rimmers(1973) theoretical framework for port cities definesthe foreland and hinterland as generators of portdevelopment. Both elements conceptually relateto the land at the extremities of the voyage. Thesea space itself and in particular the space of theanchorage or harbour is incidental. In contrastReeves, Broeze and McPherson endorse the im-portance of landsea interface in their study of theAsian port city:

Such port city studies must take their start atthe places [my emphasis] where goods and

passengers are transferred between ship andshore-which is, after all, the ultimate rationaleof the port-and in consecutive stages include allaspects of urban economic, social, cultural andspatial development that are generated, domi-nated, or significantly influenced by the port.(Reeves et al, 1989)

Urban design literature dealing specifically withwaterfronts has emerged in the last quartercentury as cities internationally have rediscoveredsea adjacencies in their post-industrial urbancentres. Publications exploring the urban revista-

lisation of waterfronts and the remaking of thepublic realm in these locations have focused onthe governance, planning and design challengesof the land-based development of the city andthe urban quarter (Breen and Rigby, 1994, 1996;Berens, 2004) while other studies have documen-ted the changes in port infrastructure (Meyer,1999) to demonstrate a variety of generatingconditions for port-city edge transformations thathave resulted in successful urban waterfrontprojects around the world.

Typologically port waterscapes such as canals anddocks have often been identified by urbantheorists as elements of urban structure orenclosed public space in water-based cites (Bacon,1975, pp. 100105; Braunfels, 1988, pp. 78109).Kostof (1992, pp. 218219) describes the overlaysof infrastructure, walkways, vegetation, buildingsand streets that combine to energise urban water-ways from Amsterdam to Delhi. Jacobs (1993,pp. 6274) highlights on water light and move-ment as contributing to vibrant liquid streetscapes

such as the Grand Canal in Venice, and Blumen-feld (in Spreiregen 1967, pp. 246269) interrogatescivic design qualities resulting from the careful

juxtaposition of an enclosed dock, an urbansquare and a town hall complex in Hamburgs

Inner Alster. These latter studies in particularpoint to the importance of the water space itself asa public realm.

A definition of the public realm of the portcity therefore needs to make reference to spaces,functions, technologies and activities from bothurban and maritime traditions to properly en-compass the complexity of this transitional zone.Bluespace can thus be defined as place where:

1. A physical space or social activity has an edgecondition or adjacency that is coastal

2. The context is urban in character

These two fundamental characteristics of blue-space can be elaborated by four further criteria tocreate a matrix of nine space types that can beranked in terms of:

1. Being analogous to a maritime space ortechnology

2. Being located along a landsea continuum3. Can be described in terms of a clearly defined

spatial or formal configuration4. Can be mapped on to a recognised urban space

typology

The nine space types that emerge as a result ofthis analytical process are: maritime highways,fleets at anchor, harbour arenas, beaches, piersand jetties, containers, docks and canals, water-front squares and beached vessels (Figure 1). Ineach category, three examples of the space typeare identified in the matrix. An historical andgeographical range is evident, with examplesfrom Rio de Janeiro in the 18th century to Dubaiin the 21st century.

A typological approach

A typological approach is useful as the basis forthe bluespace matrix because of its emphasison urban precedent and formal and spatial chara-cteristics. The types serve as exemplars thatfacilitate translation into three-dimensional designthinking. The emergence of the notion of a type,

based on actual architectural and urban examples,

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is supported by Anthony Vidlers notion of thethird typology. Vidler (1976) argues that the first(biological/natural) typology and the second(mechanistic) typology are superseded by thethird (architectural/urban) typology. In otherwords, architects and urban designers shouldlook to a rich architectural and urban precedentfor design inspiration, rather than referencingidioms that are more relevant to other disciplines.Such a process of reference has been systematised

by Rob Krier (1979) in an extensive typological

classification of public space, both real andimagined, demonstrating the spectrum of choiceavailable to the designer.

Aldo Rossi (1982) distinguished the citys compo-site parts as being made up of primary andsecondary elements. Primary elements or persis-tences were things such as the plan, squares,parks and significant urban monuments, all ableto be articulated as types, which contributed item

by item to an urban collective memory. The sumtotal of these memorable components created acity that in itself was an artefact of human cultureand history.

Leon Krier (1985) takes the specific elements ofthe city (the spatial types of streets, squares, and

blocks) and identifies both their relationships andthe balance required between them to create theright solution. More recently on the other sideof the Atlantic, American theorists Duany andPlater-Zyberk (1992) have reinvented the smallAmerican town in the suburbs, using typologicalcomponentry of structure, public space, buildingtype, and architectural detail. Great nostalgicmileage is made from invoking the 19th centuryimagery and form. New urbanism or smartgrowth as it is sometimes known resurrects sound19th century urban design principles: publictransport, well-structured and ample provisionfor public space, gridded plans that evenly

MARITIME ANALOGY SEA/LAND RELATIONSHIP FORMAL / SPATIAL CONFIGURATION URBAN SPACE TYPE

MARITIME HIGHWAYS

Baltic SeaMediterranean SeaHauraki Gulf

SPACE + ACTIVITY ON WATER SPACE CONTAINED BY LAND INFRASTRUCTURE

FLEETS AT ANCHOR

Sydney Cove C18

San Francisco C19Aberdeen Harbour Hong Kong

SPACE + ACTIVITY ON WATER SPACE CONTAINED BY LAND QUARTER

HARBOUR ARENAS

Rio de Janeiro Harbour C19Hauraki Gulf Americas Cup [00, 03]Valencia Americas Cup [07]

SPACE + ACTIVITY ON WATER SPACE CONTAINED BY LAND ARENA

BEACHES

Bondi Beach SydneyCopacabana Rio de JaneiroThe Palms Dubai

SPACE + ACTIVITY ON LAND AND WATER SPACE CONTAINED BY LAND PARK

PIERS AND JETTIES

Queens Wharf Auckland C19Walsh Bay Sydney C19Hanuabada Port Moresby

SPACE + ACTIVITY ON LAND AND WATER LINEAR SPACE OVER WATER STREET

CONTAINERS

Borneo AmsterdamRuoholahti HelsinkiAmphibious houses Middelburg

SPACE + ACTIVITY ON LAND AND WATER MUTIPLE UNITS GEOMETRICALLY CONFIGURED IN 3D SP BLOCK

DOCKS/CANALS

Grand Canal Docks DublinKoop Van Zuid RotterdamPuerto Madero Buenos Aires

SPACE + ACTIVITY ON LAND BUILDINGS SURROUNDING FOCUSED WATER SPACE SQUARE

WATERFRONT SQUARES

Piazza San Marco VenicePraca do Commercio Lisbon C18Largo do Paco Rio de Janeiro C18

SPACE + ACTIVITY ON LAND OPEN SPACE ENCLOSED ON 2 SIDES BY BUILDINGS SQUARE

BEACHED VESSELS

Niantic San Francisco C19Ark Wellington C19Alang Gujarat

SPACE + ACTIVITY ON LAND SHIPS ON LAND BLOCKBUILDING

Figure 1. Bluespace Matrix (2007) Brand.

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filtered traffic, mixed-use commercial centres andmultiple building typologies across industrial,commercial and residential uses. New urbanismin its theoretical manifestation was a formulationthat could be applied to any social or cultural

context, and talked about interpretation of localhistories and cultural practices and architectures.It was also concerned with mixing communitieswith respect to age, ethnicity and socio-economiclevel. The first project built was a town calledSeaside in Florida, which emerged as a full replicaof a 19th century resort for the wealthy, andcaptured the imagination of the real estate in-dustry that went on to adapt new urbanism forcommercial purposes. With the exception oftransit-based examples of new urbanism (Calthorpe,1993; Katz, 1994), highly marketable but funda-mentally unsustainable enclaves of privilege and

facile historicism have dominated the move-ments built projects from Australias Gold Coastto South East Asias exurban tracts. The point to

be noted, however, is that all these ways ofunderstanding urban design are typologicallydriven, are fundamentally structuralist in empha-sis and log on effectively to the way designersdealing with the physical implications of the builtenvironment think about urban design.

While several theorists are cited above, the mostapplicable body of urban theory is that of LeonKrier. This is because Kriers theory deals with

formal physical space types derived from theEuropean urban tradition and elucidates a setof physical components (metropoles (cities),quarters (neighbourhoods), streets (movementcorridors), squares and parks (urban rooms)vernacular (repeating traditional urban fabric)and architecture (monuments)) that when com-

bined in balance to create the city. The verna-cular and architecture align with Rossisprimary and secondary elements in the city.

Peter Rowes (1991) concept of using large-scaleinfrastructure as a poetic design operation thatcan give visual coherence to the macro urbanenvironment is also relevant. Rowe argues thatmajor elements of urban infrastructure such asexpressways or parking lots have two character-istics that allow them the potential to unite andenergise the wider visual field: scale and move-ment. If we conceptualise the water of a port orharbour as a substantial and visually compellinginfrastructural element at the centre of a city, wehave essentially a typological [re]invention in

Rowes terms, or a rediscovery of a sustainableform of transportation that peaked in the 19th andearly 20th centuries. The space is infrastructural(particularly as water-based mass transit begins toreassert itself at metropolitan, regional and

national levels as a more ecologically responsibleform of travel), and it involves continual move-ment. This approach is also pertinent to theconceptualisation of harbour space as a largeoutdoor arena where the larger landscape acts asa natural (Auckland) or constructed (Valencia)amphitheatre for water activities.

Maritime technology and colonialprocess

The nine types of bluespace cited are also

derivative of technological and formal changesin port infrastructure, which reflect the history ofmaritime colonisation and the exploitation ofdistant resource-rich localities. Traditional sea-ports in Europe often consisted of natural baysenhanced by man-made features such as break-waters to afford protected harbours. Colonial ports,however, were selected for their high degree ofnaturally convenient anchorage, shelter and de-fensibility. Deep harbours adjacent to elevatedground with protection from strong wind andtides were favoured with a view to minimisingimperial expenditure on port infrastructure. As a

result, many port cities in Southern Hemispherecolonies exhibit a high degree of enclosure andshelter, with multiple berthage areas. This madethem perfect hub cities for maritime travel in the18th and 19th centuries, and outstanding sailingand recreation spaces in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The dramatic technological changes in shippinginfrastructure over this period are also relevant.The ever increasing size of vessels, the method ofpropulsion, the cargo densities and the loadingarrangements all have an impact on the physicalurban and architectural character of the port. Upuntil the 18th century, small sailing vessels withhigh value but compact cargoes (gold, silver,diamonds or spices) could be easily loaded andunloaded via barges or smaller craft. The largervessels emerging after this date (sail, steam andmotor), which carried lower density commoditycargoes (sugar, coffee, grain, wool, meat etc), weremore efficiently loaded and unloaded frompurpose-built warehouses on docks and piers.The invention of the container in 1950 eliminated

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the warehousing requirement of port precinctsand necessitated complete mechanisation of ship-ping operations, rendering 18th and 19th-centurywaterfronts from the London Docklands to theSydney wharves redundant as sites of exchange.

Port cities have historically developed a secondand equally complex urban realm because of theirstrategic, topographical, functional and spatialcharacter: that of the harbour and the sea. Thefollowing discussion examines this space in termsof its relationship to traditional maritime andurban spaces, and their relationship to land andsea, with nine space types being identified. Theargument is to be supported by textual andrepresentational material including hydrographi-cal charts, town surveys, sketches paintings,photographs and GPS-linked graphics.

The matrix

The bluespace matrix can be read from top tobottom and left to right and is structured to give agraduated overview of the range of space andenvironmental contexts possible. Left to right thecolumns rank and describe the four criteria fromthe definition above. The first column identifiesand names the bluespace types (with threeexamples of each) and relates them to a specificmaritime analogy. The second column lists the

bluespace according to the degree of relation-ship it has to water or land, progressing frompredominantly water at the top to predominantlyland at the bottom. The third column definesthe formal and spatial characteristics of the eachtype and the fourth column maps the bluespacetype onto an urban type (listed in progressivelydiminishing scale). The discussion below explainsthe spaces in detail and gives examples of each.

Maritime highways

Maritime highways are bodies of sea water thatare geographically contained, conceptualised assurfaces that facilitate transportation and have asubstantial history of sustained maritime trade.The Mediterranean, the Baltic and at a smallerscale New Zealands Hauraki Gulf all fit thisdescription. The Baltic was named Mare Balticum(derived from the Latin balteus or girdle),recognising its encompassing form and visualis-ing it as a medium of connection that facilitated

trade and plunder (Palmer, 2006). The Romans atthe apogee of their imperial power declared theMediterranean to be their lake alluding to thespatial enclosure afforded by their land-basedhegemony and the potential of the surface to

expedite movement and linkage to their colonies(Langewiesche, 2004).

The Hauraki Gulf contains a series of shelteredharbours and islands off New Zealands north-eastern shore facing the Pacific Ocean. It becamethe centre of Maori and European settlements inthe region from the 1820s onwards and hasalways served as a recreation ground for Auck-land. William Swainson wrote in 1853:

The Waitemata is well adapted for boat-sailing.Canoes from all parts of the Gulf are con-tinually arriving and departing; and withnearly 100 vessels from distant ports, upwardsof 600 coasters, and nearly 2000 canoes yearlyentering the port, its sheltered waters present alively, business-like appearance. But never,perhaps, is it seen to so great an advantage aswhen once or twice a year the native chiefTaraia and his tribe [Tama-Te-Ra], from theeastern boundary of the Gulf, pay Auckland avisit in their fleet of forty sail of well-mannedwar canoes. (Stone, 2001)

The sea became the focus of life at the coastal edgeand the unifying reality of politics, commerce and

culture in New Zealand from the first moments ofBritish colonisation. The documentation of thenew colony focused on charting the seabed andcoasts, and then on surveying the towns on theshores of the Hauraki Gulf. Captain James Cookscharts from 1768 to 1771 were widely used andaugmented. Roads were a secondary and incon-venient means of passage, and were only fullydeveloped after the arrival of the telegraph. Manyislands in the Gulf became 19th century indus-trial depots for Kauri logging, milling, whalingand ship building (Great Barrier Island), nickelmining and copper smelting (Kawau Island), sandand scoria quarries (Waiheke Island), and moregenerally agriculture and grazing. By the 1860sa network of settlements ringed the Gulf. SirGeorge Grey, the second Governor of NewZealand, astutely located his Mansion House atKawau Island. At that time, it was the centre ofsailing passages between the Auckland Isthmus,the northern settlements and the resource-richouter islands of the Hauraki Gulf, and wastherefore the perfect place from which to control

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both Maori and European constituencies. The bodyof water itself was the super highway of the era.

Fleets at anchor

Fleets at anchor are topographically containedwater-based urban communities that prefigure acity (as in colonial settings such as early Sydneyand gold-rush San Francisco) or are maintained asfloating neighbourhoods on account of a water-

based economic activity or condition, such as thesanpan fleets at Aberdeen Harbour in Hong Kong.

A well-documented example of a colonial fleet atanchor is Arthur Phillips first fleet shortly afterarrival in Australia. A plan of Sydney Cove inApril 1788 by convict Francis Fowkes (Figure 2)

shows the convict transports anchored in PortJackson 3 months after their arrival. The mapshows a convict camp on the edge of a vastcontinent. Isolated plots are marked out geo-metrically and labelled alphabetically within astrict camp hierarchy differentiating officers fromsoldiers from convict and, within the convictranks, women from men. Most of the map isdrawn in two dimensions. As if to emphasise

their status and importance in the frame onlythe Governors House and the ships of the fleetin the harbour are drawn in three dimensionsalong with distant hills and islands in the channel.Some of the vessels display hoisted sails and

oversized standards flying from their sterns.These were the only certainties in the newenvironment and they loom large in the artistsview of his new circumstances. A later plandrawn by Thomas Medland in July of the sameyear shows a proposal for the design of the newcity. The Governor, Arthur Phillip, had served inthe Portuguese Navy in Portugal and Brazil andfavoured a waterfront square at the centre ofSydney. The plan was never actioned due to lackof resources but the drawing is interesting for itsdepiction of the landsea balance of the early city.The cove is shown 6 months after landfall and the

harbour is the most technically detailed aspect ofthe map. The bay has been charted, the coastalsandstone shelf contours have been traced andeight ships are shown with anchors fully deli-neated. In John Hunters 1788 illustration namesare even inscribed on the water next to thevessels. The landed community is still sparsewith small dark tents and huts barely registeringon the site. The proposed square and street

Figure 2. Sydney Cove April (1788) Francis Fowkes, National Library of Australia.

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alignments fade off the edges of the map, becausethe harbour at this stage is the most importantfeature of the settlement.

Mid-19th century San Francisco was a city inwhich this pattern became accentuated due to themicro-economic distortions of the Californiangold rush. The discovery of gold in California

bought ships full of hopeful prospectors fromaround the globe. Between the years 1849 and1851 San Francisco grew from a settlement of afew hundred people to a city of 15,000. Topo-graphically hemmed in on three sides by shiftingsand dunes the city grew into the harbour withlinear wharves extending into deep water. Oncedubious water lots became prestigious realestate. As arriving crews and passengers aban-

doned these vessels, speculators desperate forspace, converted the ships into floating buildings,storeships, hotels, offices and a church. In 1851,there were 148 such vessels on the waterfront, aVenice built of pine instead of marble noted aChilean visitor (Delgado, 2001).

Aberdeen Harbour in Hong Kong is an example ofa water-based community that is specific to anethnic group called the Tanka who have tradition-ally lived on junks in coastal China and Vietnam.Although many members of this group now live in

onshore villages and markets some members ofthe older generation live on their narrow boatsand pursue their traditional occupation of fishing.Originating from the Malay Peninsula the Tankaarrived in Hong Kong in the seventh century.Reclamation and pollution in Hong Kong havereduced the productive fishing grounds, andthose with small craft who cannot fish offshorecongregate in small floating villages close to land.

Harbour arenas

Harbour Arenas take the same formal and spatialarrangement as fleets at anchor as they predomi-nantly occur within contained harbour spaces, butinstead of encompassing a static community, the

bowl of space becomes a natural amphitheatre forwater-based recreational or cultural activities such

Figure 3. Disembarkation of the Princess Royal Leopoldina in Rio de Janeiro (1817) Jean Baptiste Debret, Museu da

Chacara do Ceu.

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as the ceremonial arrivals of dignitaries, or sailingregattas. Maritime nations such as Portugal andBritain exploited their local and colonial harboursfor ceremonial and recreational ends.

Portuguese monarchs enjoyed a long tradition ofurban maritime ceremony related to the arrivaland departure of monarchs and foreign digni-taries in Lisbon. In Rio de Janeiro between 1808and 1821 during his courts forced exile in Brazil,Dom Joao VI maximised the juxtaposition of agrand landscape setting with regal pageantry, andextravagant maritime ceremony became an allimportant public relations exercise for a regime indecline (Brand, 2006). In 1817 in an arrangementdesigned to cement Portugals ties with AustriasHapsburg dynasty, the Archduchess Leopoldinaarrived in Rio de Janeiro for her marriage toPrince Dom Pedro I (Figure 3). The highpoint ofthe royal households residency in Brazil, thisoccasion was depicted by artist Jean BaptisteDebret, a founding member of the French ArtisticMission. The scene represents one of the mostexuberant public waterfront celebrations thatthe house of Braganca indulged in during itstime in Brazil.

In New Zealand, recreational sailing regattas havebeen a diversion from the foundation of thecolony up until the two Americas Cup regattas

on the Waitemata Harbour in 2000 and 2003. Anearly description of an organised recreationalevent in colonial New Zealand is from the diaryof Sarah Mathew the wife of the Acting SurveyorGeneral Felton Mathew. She recounts the occasionof the founding of the city of Auckland onSeptember 18 1840:

As it was wished to make this somewhat of aholiday the gentlemen got up a boat raceamongst themselves, another for the sailors,and a canoe race for the natives, which all cameoff with great eclat. The amateurs pulled the

Surveyor-Generals gig against the Captainsgig; the sailors contested their whale boatagainst that of the Harbour master, for a purseof 5 pound; The Natives were each given half apound of Tobacco, with which they seemedmuch delighted; and this closed the daysfestivity. (Rutherford, 1940)

A similar race is depicted in a sketch by CharlesBlomfield (Figure 4) showing a boat-level view ofthe action on the harbour. The race became anannual ritual, as did the waging of bets on theoutcomes.

For the 2000 and 2003 Americas Cup regattas,Animation Research Limited, a small Dunedinsoftware company, developed a GPS-enhancedcomputer graphics package that allowed compet-ing yachts to be tracked with extreme accuracy(Figure 5). Real-time on-board shots, helicopterimages and sound, enhanced the commentarythat followed the progress of the race. Detailedgraphic enhancement and spontaneously drawndiagrams explaining the logic of match racingallowed a sedentary television audience to followthe race strategies and outcomes. Americas Cup

yachting, a hitherto removed and arcane enter-prise became a media and broadcast phenomen-on. This technology raised the profile of yachtingas a spectator sport and redefined the harbourarea and port as an urban arena in the minds ofthe international viewing public and the citizensof Auckland. The Americas Cup facility built in

Figure 4. Auckland regatta (undated) Charles Blomfield, Alexander Turnbull Library.

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Valencia for the 2007 challenge took this idea

further. Favourable wind and wave conditions inValencia will allow racing close to the shore andan extensive spectator park with a beach and a

breakwater overlooking the course accommodatesup to 1,000,000 spectators.

Beaches and parks

Beaches were the first landing places in newterritories before cities were constructed andconstitute the land edges of the harbour arenas.Now largely existing only outside historic urban

centres they are nonetheless a significant type ofbluespace that combine shore adjacency with parksor an expanse of sand, rocks and shallow water.

Urban gardens and beaches were often aligned incoastal colonial cities of the Southern Hemi-sphere. Urban gardens such as the Passeo Publicoin Rio de Janeiro and the Royal Botanic Gardensin Sydney combined scientific knowledge andgenteel promenading at the waters edge. By

extension, the water space became a domain of

pleasure, both passive and active. The harbourand its activities became the focus of these greenspaces with their long vistas reaching out to theseascape beyond.

With the expansion of cities around these har-bours, the beach became a coastal form of theurban park. Famous urban beaches include Bondiin Sydney, Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro andMiami Beach in Florida. Bondi (Figure 6) com-

bines a major green park and an expansive beachwith public facilities scattered along it, includinga pavilion, an open air tidal swimming pool andparking areas. This is backed by an esplanadereplete with hotels, restaurants and shops. BondiBeach as depicted in contemporary Australianart is a 20th-century leisure playground popu-lated by scantily clad hedonists. Bondi is thenatural habitat of photographer Max Dupainsoiled Sunbaker or the bronzed Surf lifesavers.Mostly the beach is represented as a naturalsetting. Artist Brett Whiteleys unfinished Bondi

beach scene is one of the few images alluding

Figure 5. Americas cup race start (2003) Animation Research Limited http://arl.co.nz.

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to an urban backdrop with its railed concretepromenade and artists paraphernalia in theforeground.

Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro follows asimilar pattern. The beach is framed along itslength by tall apartments with restaurants and

bars at the base. The park (designed by BurleMarx) is a dynamically paved strip dotted withpetrol stations, police booths and renters of beachaccessories, trisected by two major roadwaysforming Avenida Atlantica. The paving on the

beachfront repeats the black and white cobbledwave motif used in the Rossio square in Lisbonand is edged with a stand of tall palms. On theedge of the sand regularly spaced tower structurescombine lifesaving surveillance posts and informalstalls selling coconut juice and sunglasses. Unlikein Europe and the US where many beachesare fenced and privatised, Copacabana and Bondiare both truly democratic public spaces for thepleasure of all demographic groups.

The beach has taken on a new and superlativeform in the development of gargantuan figures ofoasis off the coast of Dubai with projects such asThe Palms or The World creating endless

beachfront real estate for the wealthy investor.The leaves of the palms bend the beach into anultra-elongated bay creating in effect a canal tomaximise mansions per beach frontage over asmall expanse of contained water, thereby sub-verting the actual spatial curve and view of thehorizon that a beach space embodies. In Dubai,the iconography of the beach as a piece of tropical(palm or island) imagery has overtaken thecharacter and disposition of the space as part ofthe public realm of the city. The emphasis is on

the beach as a lifestyle branding strategy ratherthan as an urban space that enhances the city.

Piers and jetties

A pier or jetty is a liner projection over water thatextends the architecturally contained space ofearthbound public street into the outwardlydirected open space of the sea. Vessels are berthedparallel or perpendicular to these linear platforms.

In 1840 a pier that captured the essential connec-tion between the main street and the anchoragewas constructed at the base of the Queen Streetvalley in Auckland, New Zealand. Queens Wharf

extended Queen Street by a quarter of its one milelength into the Waitemata Harbour. An image from1852 by Patrick Hogan (Figure 7) shows the landsea junction and the seamless continuity from oneto the other. After 11 years of settlement, ships inthe harbour occupy as much sea space as buildingsdo land space, and the scale of the vessels over-shadows the small timber cottages on the horizon.Waka (Maori canoes) lie beached among Europeancraft. A photograph of Queens Wharf in the late19th century shows a larger and more complexfacility, and confirms the ongoing importance ofthe supply line from ocean to colony. A structureover water with a main street and side streetshas sprouted pavilions and warehouses among thehuge vessels berthed alongside the pier. The realcity provides a similarly scaled backdrop to thefrenetic activity of the docks. Similar images can befound for other New Zealand ports of the time,although the pier configurations differ relative totides and prevailing winds. In Wellington, wharvesthat initially were constructed perpendicular to thecoast were eventually grouped in grid formations

Figure 6. Bondi beach (1993) Diane Brand.

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oriented northsouth to take advantage of thedecelerating effect of prevailing wind directionswhile ships were docking.

This linkage of street and sea was maximised inthe late 19th century construction of five-fingerwharves at Walsh Bay in Sydney. The piers aretwo-storeyed timber structures, backed by brickshore-sheds on terra firma. A level difference

between the pier, the escarpment and the dockallowed horse-drawn carts and later lorriesloaded with wool and grain to be driven directlyonto the upper level of the pier. The wool was

baled, labelled and chuted down to the docks forloading onto waiting ships. This efficient berthage

configuration served the wool export industry inSydney well into the mid-20th century.

In Papua New Guinea, a residential version of apier development is located northwest of thenations capital Port Moresby. Hanuabada (literally

big village) is home to 15,000 mainly indigenouspeople. A traditional form of settlement built overthe sea by the coastal dwelling Motu tribe, thevillage consists of small timber dwellings on tall

stilts, linked to land by narrow elevated walk-ways. This way of constructing a communityaccorded with the tribes traditional occupation offishing, and afforded security and protection fromthe land-based hostilities of rival tribes. Boats can

be navigated into the spaces between the piersand moored adjacent to the dwellings.

Containers

In 1950, the first containers were used to shipcargoes between the United States and PuertoRico. Since then docks around the world have

been progressively mechanised and relocated tosites with deep water berthage and large expansesof flat land, leaving behind traditional inner cityport land for redevelopment. Modern containerterminals on large peripheral sites bristle withsuper-scaled cranes that oversee acres of stackedmetal boxes or vast parking lots full of newlyimported vehicles. The steel container is thestorage module that gets delivered by articulatedtruck directly to a distribution centre or manu-facturer, making traditional port warehouse zonesredundant.

Figure 7. Auckland New Zealand (From Smales Point) (1852) Patrick Hogan Alexander Turnbull Library.

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Many of these warehouses and bond stores havebeen retro-fitted as offices and apartments butincreasingly dockside land is redeveloped, withentire city quarters overtaking previously indus-trial uses. Two examples of the redevelopment of

inner city port land are the Borneo district inAmsterdam and the Ruoholahti precinct inHelsinki. These cases are relevant not only

because they have displaced traditional portfunctions but also because their designers haveconsciously used the robust aesthetic of thecontainer and container vessels to conceptualiseand configure three-dimensional space.

The Borneo-Sporeburg Peninsula developmentby landscape architects West 8 concentrates thepublic realm in the street and on the water. Theurban blocks are built up of back-to-back three- orfour-level containers of integrated private indoorand outdoor space (gardens and patios). DesignerAdrian Geuze compares this form of residentialdevelopment to a Swiss cheese where between 30and 50% of each housing module consists of voidsor open spaces that would normally be found inthe front and rear yards of the property. Theresidential modules were given to 60 differentarchitects to design in detail. This resulted inurban blocks that have a consistent modulation,

but are varied in their internal spatial configura-tion and external architectural expression. The

space of each individual legal lot is geometricallystacked on the site in a comparable way tocontainers on a wharf.

Ruoholahti (Figure 8) is a mixture of public andprivate sector housing and commercial develop-ments centred on a public square, a communitycentre and a canal incorporating a marina. TheHigh Technology Centre by Wartiainen Architectsand Evata Finland consists of five similar buildingssitting at the entrance to the canal. The centre isdescribed as a business refinery but is essentiallya technology park following the Silicon Valleymodel where clusters of high-tech researchers and

businesses congregate to produce value-addedinformation technology products. The buildingstake their iconography from the existing cranes onthe adjacent Jatkasaari cargo and passenger term-inal, with a ship-scaled, highly articulated andmuscular structure supporting offices above thewaterside promenade. The five buildings resemblethe bridge structures of container vessels in form,scale and materiality, and to further reinforce the

maritime analogy each building is named after anexploration ship.

With predictions that hundreds of millions peoplecould become refugees of global warming, Dutcharchitects are investigating amphibious housing.Borrowing from shipbuilding, offshore oil rig andpontoon technology, floating residential contain-ers are proliferating in watery localities aroundthe Netherlands. These projects resemble villageson water, where identical amphibious housescluster around piers, or are designed be towedto new locations as with Herman HertzbergersWater Dwellings in Middelburg. The identicalnature of these floating modules, their massfabrication, their transportability, their extensiveuse of marine technology and their clustering atthe waters edge make these projects an excellentexample of an innovative container typology.

Docks and canals

In the late 18th century, the wealth resulting fromthe industrial revolution in Britain fuelled invest-

Figure 8. High Technology Centre Ruoholahti (2000)

Diane Brand.

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ment in the expansion of port and canal infra-structure to connect mills to local and over-seas markets. The decades around 1800 saw theemergence of grand projects in bold classicalgeometries that were needed to separate local

from international shipping in the increasinglycongested waterways of the British Isles. Forexample, in London the West India Docks of18001802, the East India Docks of 18041808and St Katherines Docks of 18251828 were allinstances of extensive formal warehouse pre-cincts arranged in grids. The installations wereso vast that some paintings of the era show themin birds-eye view perspective, as a vast networkof ponds dotted with vessels and surrounded

by formal building arrangements that dwarfedthe modest communities in their lee. Theseprecincts were the nexus of British trade until

well into the 12th century when containerisationchanged the landscape of port operations. Fromthe 1980s onwards these precincts were progres-sively converted into office and residential zonesto support a burgeoning service sector driven

by the information economy and globalisationof markets. These dock spaces and canals thatwere once filled with ships plying global traderoutes are now empty water squares overlooked

by luxury accommodation or privatised marinaberths.

The spatial configuration of a dock is generallyan elongated rectangle of water with enoughdepth to allow ships to manoeuvre into the spaceand dock parallel to the quays. In the 19thcentury, the space type would have resembleda marine parking lot with a continual throughputof vessels. When the vessels disappear, thespace is reduced to a water square in that thespace is a focus for the development around itrather than a busy movement corridor. Manycontemporary dockside redevelopments are dis-appointingly minimal in their use of the waterspace itself with the body of water serving as aview rather than an engaging activity space.Developments that fall into this category includethe Grand Canal Docks in Dublin (Figure 9),Koop Van Zuid in Rotterdam and Puerto Maderoin Buenos Aires. While grand 19th centurywarehouses converted to lofts, or new develop-ments referencing a maritime past remainphysically seductive, it was the commerce andindustry of the old dock sectors that madethem urbane.

Waterfront squares

The urban square is a well-established waterfrontspace from the ancient world. Vitruviuss TenBooks of Architecture identified the location anddistribution of public squares and civic buildingswithin a city. Albertis Renaissance treatiseOn the

Art of Building in Ten Booksenlarged on the earlierwork and specifically advocated a gridiron plan.Spanish planning tradition in South America,articulated in Phillip IIs The Laws of the Indies(1573), embodied these principles and clearlyidentifies the location of the principal publicspace in the case of a port:

112 The main plaza is to be the starting pointfor the town; if the town is situated on the seacoast, it should be placed at the landing placeof the port, but inland it should be at the centreof the town. The plaza should be square orrectangular, in which case it should have atleast one and a half its width for lengthinasmuch as this shape is best for fiestas inwhich horses are used and for any other fiestasthat should be held. (Gasparini, 1991)

Figure 9. Grand Canal Dock, Dublin (2006) Diane

Brand.

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Canalettos paintings of Piazza San Marco inVenice are memorable because they highlight therelationship between the square and the adjacentwater, and give a fulsome portrayal of everydaylife and civic ceremony in the 16th century city. In

painting urban Venice Canaletto recognized boththe commodity value of the city (Boyer, 1994) andthe capacity of pageantry to enhance the impactof the image. Two paintings in particular capturethe movement, the display and the architectureof the place and time: Reception of the Imperial

Ambassador, Count Giuseppe di Bolagno, at the DogesPalaceand The Bucintoro preparing to leave the Moloon Ascension Day. The first painting focuses on thedignitary in question while the second shows thewider water context of the event. Both images,however, illustrate water and land as equallyimportant to the ceremony depicted.

The Portuguese built two outstanding examplesof waterfront squares: the Praca do Commercio(Commercial Square) in Lisbon, and the Largo doPaco (Palace Square) in Rio. Rio de Janeiro grewaround the Largo do Paco at the waters edgeand the space was modelled on the Praca doCommercio. The Praca do Commercio had beenreconstructed by the Marquis of Pombal in thewake of the 1755 earthquake that devastated thecentre of Lisbon. The square was enlarged andsurrounded by an elegantly symmetrical arrange-ment of concrete framed buildings accommo-

dating commercial and government functions.Connection to the river was achieved directly

by a curvilinear stone-landing place projectingaxially from the paved square, with a fountainand broad steps down to the water on three sides.Eighteenth-century images show a plethora ofmaritime craft in the vicinity of the landing place.Artists routinely overstated this aspect of portcities as a matter of imperial pride and propa-ganda, for there is a consistency of fantasticmaritime volume in many historic images ofLisbon, Rio and Salvador. A painting by A.J. Noelfrom 1789 shows the launching of a frigatefrom the Royal Dockyard in Lisbon. The enclosedsquare of the boatyard is completed andeffectively doubled by a flotilla of vessels. The

boats complete and enclose the extended spaceon the surface of the Tagus, and provide anadditional vantage point from which to viewthe spectacle. A similar on-water configurationwas adopted at the adjacent Praca do Commerciofor the welcoming of foreign monarchs when theyarrived by sea. The Largo do Paco was also an

important site for royal ceremonial events. Out-side of these occasions the space was the nexus oftrade and commerce in the city with foreign shipsdrawing up to replenish water supplies from thehuge fountain at the waters edge. It was also

the principal landing point for Portuguese navaland government vessels. For slaves it was theplace where water was collected for the mastershousehold and the location of the pelourinhoor whipping post, where harsh punishmentswere administered. The waterfront square thusrepresented a form of urban space that allowedthe city proper to engage with the bluespace ofthe harbour. As a focused space type it allowedfor the expression of communal activity, andrelated to citizenship, commerce and government(Figure 10).

Beached vessels

Proudfoot (1996) makes the important linkagebetween the port and the inevitable exponentialgrowth of the city and region behind it. Part ofthis process involved the establishment of portfacilities that in the 19th century consisted of ship-yards, warehouses, bond stores, shipping offices,insurance companies and other maritime industryaffiliates. Solomon makes this observation withrespect to Hobart, Australia:

Throughout the nineteenth and into the twen-tieth century the port continued to be a majorsection of inner Hobart, both of its fabricand its function. Its function of exchange wasabsolutely basic to the capitals increasinglynormal role as a trading town, and the ware-housing backing the wharves formed the link

between production of the land and commerceof the sea. The population drove and prome-naded along its margins with keen delight andthe port zone was by its nature distinctive.(Solomon, 1976)

The front row of the harbour amphitheatre wasfunctionally bulk-storage where goods movedfrom ships hold to warehouse or bond storeand vice versa. Conceptually one could view theevolution of port warehousing or bond stores asthe beaching and permanent location of the seagoing vessel, as these building types resemble dis-masted hulks in their scale massing and arrange-ment on the shore. The British Admiralty hadused dis-masted decrepit men-o-war during theNapoleonic Wars to house prisoners, and more

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famously had stored convicts on the Thames inthe years preceding the colonisation of Australiawhen Englands prisons were overwhelmed.

The metamorphosis of ships into buildingsoccurred in San Francisco during the gold rushyears. Although not the first instance of mar-itimeurban conversions, it was certainly the mostextensive and commercially driven. For example,

the former China trader Niantic was beached andlaterally supported on pilings made of her ownmasts. A barn-like superstructure was built overher decks, doors were cut in her hull, stages were

built on stern and port side and she was rented asstorage, office space and accommodation. ArtistFrank Marryat drew Niantic a full three blocksfrom open water in 1851, penned in by buildingson piles and sand fill, with a muddy street in theforeground. TheApollodrawn one building awaywas in fact at least a block distant. He muses:

This has left many old ships, which were a year

ago beached as storehouses, in a curiousposition; for the filled-up space that surroundsthem has been built upon for some distance,and new streets run between them and the sea,so that a stranger puzzles himself for sometime to ascertain how the Apollo and Niantic

became perched in the middle of the street.(Delgado, 2001)

The Niantics embedded position in the urbanrealm ultimately led to her destruction. A fire in

1851 destroyed the hulk along with approxi-mately 2000 other buildings in the harbourprecinct. The new city was simply reconstructedover the remains. Excavations for foundations to anew building in 1977 unearthed the bottomportion of the hull. In Wellington, New Zealand,on a smaller scale the Inconstant was beached atLambton Harbour in 1850 and used variouslyas a bondstore, shop and counting house for

local businessman James Smith (Figure 11). Herremains can be seen in the Museum of WellingtonCity and Sea, and below the Bank of New ZealandArcade on Lambton Quay.

In Alang, Gujurat State, India, the combination ofan expansive sandy coast and an extreme tidalrange have produced a ship breaking industrythat has attracted the scrutiny of first-worldenvironmental agencies. Here, around 300 largevessels per year are driven full throttle onto the

beach at high tide. Each ship is then manuallydismantled by 1000 or so barefoot workers inthe space of 6 months, in a dangerous andenvironmentally toxic salvage operation. Brazi-lian photographer Sebastiao Salgado first cap-tured stark impressions of gaunt and filthymigrant shipbreakers in Bangladesh in 1989 andpublished them in a book called Workers. Asapocalyptic images of the industrial revolutionrevisited in contemporary times, these operationsrepresent sites of deconstruction created by the

beached vessel typology.

Figure 10. Largo do Paco, Rio de Janeiro (1824) Augustus Earle Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.

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Conclusion

This paper demonstrates that by mapping mar-itime functions onto urban space typologies, a newcategory of urban space called bluespace can bedefined. A typological approach is useful becauseit takes what are essentially formal types related tomaritime infrastructure and indexes them to arecognised set of urban spaces. Maritime spacesthemselves have been subject to dramatic changes

in form and scale over the last 500 years making arange of analogies possible. This is a direct result ofthe development of marine technologies andimperial projects of global colonisation and trade.While the nine forms of bluespace identified arediscussed as single types they can also overlap andcombine. Maritime Highways can incorporatewhole port cities. Harbour arenas can be edgedwith beaches. Piers can extend the space of the

beach and containers can be located on dockscanals or waterfront squares. The importance ofthe matrix is that it develops a space vocabularyspecific to a port city.

The paper serves to highlight how harbour space isan integral part of the urban public space of theseaport. In spite of being historically overlooked,

bluespace has traditionally been part of theharbour city, particularly in the settlements ofmaritime colonisers such as the British andPortuguese. Urban ceremonial space in Portugaland Brazil, and dockside commercial space inEurope, Australia and New Zealand have em-

braced this realm, activated the landsea margins,and expanded the conceptual space of the city intothe harbour itself. In the 21st century and beyondrising sea levels will reshape port cities and presentchallenges and opportunities to further articulatethis space. This study provides an initial theoreticalposition from which to proceed.

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