Mar a la vistalas transformaciones del puerto de Málaga en el debate de los Waterfronts

Laburpena

There are numerous the transformations that are carried out throughout last thirty years in the maritime ranges, where the ports have moved away from the cities leaving behind old docks, useless already for the port current activity, which they have turned into urban areas, more or less successful, integrated to the historical city, allowing the meeting of the city with the sea in these inherited infrastructures. Malaga is a port city back to its origins, and it has been the sea that has created a diverse and versatile place, where different cultures, landscapes and atmospheres have coexisted in different eras, constituting the essence of all things Mediterranean and ennobling the soul of this port city. But in the last century, with the industrial development, the port became independent, leaving part of the daily lives of its inhabitants. Even today there are embers of that withdrawal, which has been translated in the civil desire to move the port and meet again with the sea. But that is not possible because of the intense tourist activity of the coast, so the active port remains in the downtown, being extended towards the sea and liberating some of the wharves nearby to the historical centre to adapt them to urban uses. There are transforming simultaneously the historical centre, the urban port and the active port, with totally unconnected projects. There is not a global vision, a planning that relates and rehabilitates together the urban centre and the port. A joint structuring project is required with one single intention that can rely on backing from and support of the different authorities in order to achieve a genuine integration and to restore the city's port character, thereby increasing its appeal not only to the city's inhabitants but also internationally. Not only ports, cities also enter in competitive dynamics. Which is such a successful way of being distinguished using the local identity. The port city must take advantage of this maritime condition and use the existing resources to improve the quality of urban life and to promote its own identity. The city¿s port identity must be recovered by integrating it into the everyday life of its inhabitants, not only the positive and ever-fascinating historical, landscape, sociological and various other cultural values of ports, but also the port activity through the presence of a visible and attractive active port operating within the old quarter of the city. This one is the opportunity, is the moment to return to bring city, port and sea over across a double integration: on the one hand a few wharves in process of urban transformation that they will be able to bring the city near to its longed sea; and on the other hand, an industrial active port in to the historical centre that must coexist with the city, approaching physics and psychologically to its inhabitants, recovering the port identity of the city.