The landscape of our dreams, identifying the Linear City of the Costa Daurada

Abstract

This paper aims to present a brief reflection on the landscape of the Mediterranean coast, the current image of which is the explicit result of the paradigm changes that took place throughout the 20th century with the arrival of mass tourism. Often, the study of residential development on the Mediterranean coast is based on the analysis of the first models of implementation of the Spa Garden City, whose guidelines –imported– were clear and, to a certain extent, accurate. Walking through the labyrinth of the city, now invertebrate, we collect spaces, objects and experiences through photographs, drawings, cartographies and stories. In contrast with archival materials, we present in-depth documents in order to understand a landscape drawn by both functional planning and personal kitsch. We continue with the research we began in Recomposing fragments. Nowadays, the intuition that keeping one eye attentive to the detail of the domestic while the other one looks from afar at the phenomenon that embraces it –a look at two scales– can reveal some essential keys to understanding our surrounding landscape and interacting with it. Such an apparently irrational landscape –viewed at a distance– could perhaps – looked at closely– be understood as something logical and natural, for it is no more than the landscape of our dreams, materialized, turned into reality.