Coast: remakes

Abstract

The bathing scenario has changed at least four times in its various centuries of history: the individuality of the bathing machines drawn into the water, the floating platforms, the pier facilities and finally the urbanisation of the beach. In increasingly invasive ways, we have gone from seeking a relationship with the natural landscape to wiping it out and replacing it with the artificial landscape of the city. We cannot rule out the arrival of a fifth scenario in the near future, reconciling, mediating between the natural and artificial landscape, between the permanent and temporary populations, between residents and tourists. What has remained today of these historical evolutions? What traces can we still see of the different ways of living the seaside in the past?  We can associate the solitary freedom of the first bathing machines with setting up a sunshade on an untended beach. The floating platforms docked in the harbours are updated by the swimming pools along the seafronts. Some exceptional examples of piers survive, becoming monuments, or they have been replaced by spartan breakwaters. The initial therapeutic intentions soon transformed into worldly pleasures; the emphasis first of all given to a healthy lifestyle in the open air was immediately taken over by the dissoluteness of dancing and parties. Now occasions for meetings and culture seem to be gaining ground.