From Floating Architecture to Seaside Landscape. The Case of the Island of Roses

The paper deals with the formation of the Adriatic conurbation by reinter- preting the development of mass tourism starting from the first forms of exploitation of the sea, such as floating platforms and piers suspended over the sea. The historical analysis starts from the so-called invention of the sea (Alain Corbin), which for the Italian Adriatic coast dates back to the eighteenth century and from the use of marine waters as medical therapy. The first forms of marine architecture are described, such as the floating platforms of Trieste and the bathing establishments of Rimini, but also the equipped piers of Lignano Sabbiadoro, to then reach the Fascist era with the boom of marine colonies, complexes built on the coast for health purposes. Among the cases described, one, the so-called Island of Roses of Rimini, assumes partic- ular importance for the purposes of the conference. The Island of Roses was the name of a 400 m2 artificial platform that was located on the Adriatic Sea, 500 m off the Italian territorial waters. Conceived and designed by engineer Giorgio Rosa in 1958 and completed in 1967, it was declared an independent state on 1 May 1968. Although it gave itself an official language (Esperanto), a government, a currency, and a postage stamp, it was never formally recognized by any country in the world as an independent nation (see Netflix movie “The Real Story of Rose Island”). The paper continues by describing the identity and the landscape of the cities of the Adriatic coast, in which the contexts of the waterfronts are affected by settlement pressures due to the intense tourist uses.