COASTAL LANDFORMS

Project area is located in Chania, Crete. Goal of the thesis is the functional and perceptive unification of the coastal area that includes the bay of Koum Kapi and spreads until the Chalepa district. The proposal focuses on the creation of multifunctional “hybrid zone” that protects from the erosion and acts as connective element to all directions.

We have a special love for landscape design because it provides living spaces for the public and is a tool to ameliorate our cities. Visualising a new coastal seafront and presenting it to the public is a way of helping people imagine their city with a new perspective and focus their intentions to the completion of such projects. The most important was that we would be able to demonstrate through our school and university the need for architects and landscape architects to collaborate with other disciplines, collect data and knowledge and apply this information on their design. More precisely, we realised though analysis that the major problems of the area are caused from man-made and natural erosion. As a result we retrieved studies* of the area done by coastal engineers of Technical University of Crete, in order to understand the mechanics of the coastal structural forms and apply the most suitable methods of protection from erosion in our design. As we realised through analysis the design territory was comprised by successive and overlapping historic layers. So the next challenge was to be able to bind the “hard” contemporary city structures with the inaccessible rocky terrains and beaches and the inactive historic monuments found in the area. Our basic ambition was to explore ways to redesign the urban seafront in a more sustainable way and connect it with the beachscape with mild gestures, trying to maintain and bring out the special character of each part. * K.Synolakis, N.Maravelakis, N.Kalligeris, “Study of the wave conditions of the Venetian Harbour of Chania and evolution of the shoreline _ Shoreline evolution and replenishment of the beach of Koum Kapi”, Technical University of Crete.