THE URBAN WATERFRONT: A CIVIC ORIENTED SPACE

Abstract

Throughout the past two centuries, waterfronts all over the world have undergone substantial changes and have evolved from being primarily single use working and trading centres, into multifunction mixed-use commercial developments today. While waterfronts were once an important nucleus of the city and in many cases, the original source from which historical cities emerged, changes and the development of infrastructure and technology has resulted in its decline and partial or total abandonment. Today, the once vital but later underutilised industrial-port areas between the city and the water it faces, is undergoing radical reorganisation and revitalisation that has transformed their physical layout, function and use. Waterfront revitalisation where the decline / abandonment of the waterfront is redressed and the area transformed from underutilised industrial spaces into thriving urban and civic precincts, is now an international urban planning phenomenon which is taking place in cities all around the world. The trend today is for urban waterfronts to develop / redevelop from being areas with a previously singular port based purpose into multi-function areas of interest with the focus of contemporary urban waterfronts as being primarily civic oriented spaces, manifested differently all over the world depending on time, space and place. With renewed interest in urban waterfront developments today, this dissertation aims to provide an insight into an understanding of the historical development of the urban waterfront and the current role it plays in contemporary city and place making. The trend for developed or resurrected waterfronts today has been to take on a civic role which allows them the potential to become stages where important public and civic activities can take place. Recent interest in waterfront developments has focussed on the idea that waterfronts should be fully accessible to the public, embodying a strong and intimate relationship with their parent city, both physically and psychologically. For any waterfront to have a strong civic value, an understanding of the elements which help contribute to the success of civic oriented waterfronts will help to ensure that the waterfront is seen as one which is publicly accessible, an extension of the city which can be used by anyone and everyone. This dissertation attempts to analyse and discuss these factors and elements which will be deduced and based on existing case studies, as well as through an understanding of the development of the waterfront from the past, to its presence and role in contemporary times. An understanding and application of such factors would help to give an added civic value and dimension to the urban waterfront. This would in turn allow people to feel at home on the renewed urban waterfront and accord it the potential to once again become an important aspect of city living and reinforce the notion of the area as a space belonging to the city - a truly civic oriented space.