Gregorio Pecorelli

A landscape made of glass

Westland is completely saturated by productive spaces. It is a polycentric introverted system, constituted by small urban settlements facing a coastal band. Here, dunes form a complex landscape linear system which is isolating an introverted productive land from the shore, a space with a seasonal vocation. Openings are breaking the unity of the band and creating a diaphragm between these two not-communicating worlds.

The coastal band of Westland has the potential to contribute to the formation of spaces of quality, lacking in the region. In such an area, suffocated by glasshouses and the sprawl of traditional row-houses, the dyke might host spaces and programs with a seasonal vocation. This linear infrastructure can constitute an activator of touristic activities and provide the missing spaces for collectivity along the region.

For kilometers, the barrier is surrounded by an heterogeneous records of spatial conditions, from dense urban dwellings to natural and touristic locations. Diffuse and diverse interventions, responding to these different conditions, will develop new potential systems of relation between mainland and sea, so that a new awareness on the identity of the region itself could be shaped through the rediscovery of its landscape features.

The Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design
90 km2