Public Domesticity: The Beach as a Model

The temporary and collective appropriation of public spaces has become a way of pointing out the failure of their institutional management. But through the whole system of locally produced opportunities of engagement, a tendency to execute this appropriation by the performance of domestic scenes can be identified. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to describe this growing tendency to reclaim what is public by showing its capacity to be used as private, and among those, the ‘beach’ will be described as a model. Being the perfect incarnation of the idea of human fellowship in the open air, the beach regulates itself through its very un-programmed usage. This might be the reason why its genuine conditions have been tentatively replicated at the core of some highly urban scenarios. However, this experience oriented design examples seem to be just a rehearsal of what a real beach should be. Relying on the physical properties of the sand and the colourful atrezzo accompanying sunbaths, they fundamentally fail to engage the radicalness of the beach concept. If the topical image of relaxed individuals is superseded, by default distribution of space, access control, cleansing and security issues come to the fore. At a time when it is no more ‘under the pavement’, the beach can still gear the debate about public space in our cities.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Intl.2018.54

Volume Editors
Ángela García de Paredes, Iñaqui Carnicero & Julio Salcedo-Fernandez

ISBN
978-1-944214-18-0