Returns to Seaspace. Architectural and Urban approaches to Marine Environments

Since the last decade, the increasing production of urban projects designed to settle on the water ecologies triggers a series of questions concerning the relationship between urbanisation and ground, opening up questions about the historical origins of these projects and the representations they have produced of marine ecology. By addressing historical and current case studies as a series of returns to seaspace, the research tries to define what is urban and architectural in the marine environment; how architects have imagined settling architecture on the water, compared to how the existing infrastructure is currently configured; and finally how marine ecology reacts with current human occupations on the sea. As a result, a number of questions that could re-define architectural theory and practice are addressed, not only for the marine but also for the terrestrial environment.