objects one can identify specific relations to the waterfront symbolic character, the historic value related to a common memory of Artistic Value/Industrial Legacy. Smaller interventions also involve urban design solutions, and some of the projects include decisions about urban scale that face similar challenges present at the port area. Each case contributes with special details that are relevant to be commented. Questions related to the philosophy of the projects in terms of art, history, social, or cultural concerns are discussed individually. All together they form a gallery of examples that illustrate the most interesting philosophical approaches regarding waterfront projects. None of them presents a complete or accurate philosophy but together they complement each other. It is understood that significant buildings that improve the city’s image and their public life have been built along the waterfront in the last decades. Although previous generations also had particular concerns with the image of the city projected upon the riverfront. In fact some projects were selected to serve as short references that are a valuable contribution for the construction of the larger argument about what a contemporary project should include when facing a particular site at the port area.
In order to construct the argument several case studies are mentioned because they can be deemed as references and solutions that inform about the future urban redevelopment.
How can contemporary architecture express the quality of urban façade in an historical context? It is discussed how new projects may relate to ancient buildings and improve the present port area. The discussion is not centred on how it looks, if it is high or small, twisted or trendy. These are questions not to be included here. The discussion is mainly centred on the formal, spatial implications of new buildings and their contribution to the urban landscape, as well as on the importance of the public space in the former port area. That includes a variety of indicators of symbolic, artistic and cultural nature but also sustainable strategies between city and port.
The selection includes projects that were never built, others that are under construction, and utopias that will never get to be built. To separate them by categories of physical development or accordingly to their possible or impossible actual realization would reduce the discussion. The objective is to emphasize the ideas and concepts at the level of the architectural projects in order to formulate an hypothesis, to test whether projects 32