Water and city

摘要

Cities often used to have their backs to the river (Besancon), to the lake (Geneva) and sometimes even to the shore (Dakar), which bordered or ran across them. This is no longer the case. For over a century now for some cities pioneering this kind of thing, and for some thirty-odd years for all the others, reclaiming the waterfront has become a necessity and it is happening all over the world and to such an extent that one can refer to it as a fashion. London was the first to reconcile itself with the Thames and to turn its docks into stylish and expensive residential flats. Then came Barcelona, which included its harbour (a large reserved area) within its perimeter and laid out promenades, community facilities and housing. Since then there have been water-view cycling paths, walking tracks, sports and recreation activities (art galleries, trendy boutiques, pavement cafes and restaurants...) as well as housing looking out on the water, not to mention warehouses or naval bases being rehabilitated into cultural centres, museums or gigantic aquariums, and as a result, the list of cities that have become one with their rivers or seas is such that it is proving impossible to keep up to date...