"Good morning, good afternoon, and good night." With this triple and mechanical greeting, Truman Burbank says goodbye to his smiling neighbors every day from the top of a mint green door with the number 36 on his lintel. This door is identical in all the houses that line the block, sheltered between porches of equal proportions and symmetrical wooden fences. In an aerial plane we can see a city grid in pastel colors, where nothing stands out and everything fits, and in which the perfect and the ordinary seem to be on the same side of the coin.
This is Seahaven, the peaceful setting that supports the live life of the protagonist of The Truman Show, the metafilm directed by Peter Weir in 1998. A paradise of controlled normality that houses an evil reality show , where reality is only pure fiction ... Except for one detail: that city does exist. It is called Seaside and you can live in it.
"Welcome to Seaside, founded in 1981. Eight meters above sea level. Population 1,228 inhabitants (including cats and dogs)." A simple post announces the arrival in this 32-hectare coastal city in Walton County, Northwest Florida. Bathed by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and escorted by pine and dune forests, it was built under virgin land, which the developer Robert Davis inherited from his grandfather, and in which he wanted to extend that peaceful feeling of being on vacation 365 days of the year.
"Seaside came up remembering those summers I spent with my family near here. It was the mid-forties and we used to stay in a country house by the beach. Every morning we walked to the corner cafeteria for breakfast and spent nights on the porch waiting for the house to cool down while listening to stories from a relative. " Robert Davis tells ICON Design how the past inspired the city of his dreams, perpetuating that feeling of vacation happiness in a long-term resort , and with a facade reminiscent of traditional Florida shoreline buildings.
After several trips along the French and Italian coast and with the inheritance of his ever-present country –that drawn by wooden houses with high metal ceilings and flanked by white porches and fences–, the project saw the light of the hands of a young couple from architects, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater – Zyberk (DPZ CoDesign). As a result, they would not only sketch a place where the beauty of small coastal cities and architectural classicism coexist, but they would establish in Seaside the first example of New American Urbanism .
Rule number 1: "Paint your house in any color, except beige or brown"
Described by Time magazine as "the most striking and probably most influential design achievement of its time," this city bears the seal of DPZ CoDesign ideologues and architects, founders of the New Urbanism Congress (CNU). Andres Duany (Cuba, 1960) and Elizabeth Plater – Zyberk (Pennsylvania, USA, 1950) laid the foundations for an urban reform that would stand as a hopeful alternative to the conventional model of residence, latent in the suburbs that proliferated after World War II, isolated and far from big cities.
This urban movement is characterized by having an aesthetic vision of architecture, rooted in the formal classicism of civil buildings and traditional US construction. that materialized cities like Charleston or Savannah. Sweet and friendly colors are another element of distinction, applicable even to road signs.
"Seaside's color palette hides an unexpected and little-known story. In 1980, the American suburbs were heavily influenced by the California utopian modern movement represented at Sea Ranch and supported by architects such as Charles Moore. Its aesthetics manifested itself in the form of dwellings with single-sloped ceilings, unpainted wood in beige or brown, "Duany tells ICON Design. "Our urban code wanted to be a counterpoint to that gloomy trend, so we established that in Seaside any color could be used except beige and brown for houses."
The second rule is that "white is reserved for civic buildings, as they are smaller than private ones in our country and need to be distinguished in some way. This color eludes the extensive and magnificent Greek revival that was used in so many town halls and churches in small towns in the United States, "explains Duany.
The recovery of building forms from the past is a hallmark of Seaside, as shown by the Post Office atrium, the park pergolas or the event building known as Lyceum Lawn, inspired by Thomas Jefferson's plan for the city Virginia university. The central esplanade, reminiscent of the northern civil squares, connects the main public buildings - the Seaside Institute that invigorates cultural life, the primary school and a future Music Hall - to each other, aligning itself by means of a colonnade with the chapel that architect Scott Merrill designed in 2001.
Seaside has 350 private residences and 150 annex buildings. During the winter, up to 90% of the residents leave the city, while in the warmer months the population rises to 7,000. When Davis outlined his utopian city, he marked the passability of his pedestrians as a basic requirement in the urban plan. "We wanted that the inhabitants did not have to spend more than five minutes to go from their house to the center or to the beach. The city is made up of different types of trails, some narrower than others and paths marked by tree paths, to walk more or less relaxed. " To carry out this road network, DPZ CoDESIGN was inspired by the work of the first American planners after the First World War.
For the creation of the Urban Code the pair of architects had the advice of Léon Krier, Luxembourgish architect and urban planner known for being one of the great precursors of the neo-traditional trend in the 20th century . In addition to drawing accessible and passable neighborhoods, Duany and Plater – Zyberk wanted to establish the use of mixed soils that would take advantage of natural landscape resources . According to DPZ, this code has become a benchmark for urban development not only in the area - Celebration, the city promoted by the couple of architects in collaboration with Disney, has been the most notorious case - but throughout the United States. and abroad.
"It has become one of the greatest innovations in the field of urban planning in the last decade. Seaside was the first project to support the simplicity of vernacular architecture without resorting to irony or playful semantics. This would not have been possible without the fantastic Krier diagrams, in which he clarified the key problems of urban planning, "admits Duany. "He was our teacher and we took his European designs - almost medieval - adapting them to our country. Paradoxically, as DPZ's urban projects have come closer to the medieval model, the suburbs of Europe have acquired that facet of ours of overlapping isolated houses or chalets as American, "he points out.
The objective of this urban code was that any architect could work sequentially in the city without breaking its aesthetic cohesion. Among other regulations, it establishes the use of 30% glass on the facades, a maximum height of 4.2 meters in residential buildings, and limits the use of lawns in public areas. The most important variable that had to be controlled, according to Duany, was the way in which the first two floors of a building are directed and aligned on the street , since "the basis is authentic urban planning for mixed use and oriented to pedestrians "
"A reinforcement for the wealthy class consciousness"
While ideologues of the movement stress that the layout of a neighborhood with such identifying architectural elements - as well as the accessibility of its urban fabric - encourages the creation of bonds of union and a feeling of community, critical voices like David Harvey not only reject it, Rather, they investigate the supposed dark side that this type of artificially emerged communitarianism can harbor. In his book Spaces of Hope (Akal, 2003), the British geographer and theorist describes this idea of community as an "antidote" thought against threats of social disorder, class wars, and revolutionary violence.
"Grassroots communities often exclude, define themselves against others, erect all kinds of no-entry signs, and internalize surveillance, social controls and repression. The community has often put up a barrier to social change, rather than to facilitate it. " As a consequence, Harvey argues that "the founding ideology of New Urbanism is both utopian and very dangerous. It builds, for those who don't need it, an image of community and a rhetoric of conscience and pride based on place, while she abandons those who need her to her "marginalized class" destiny.
Harvey concludes by noting that most New Urbanism projects have ended up turning into green housing estates for wealthy people. Taking into account that the average purchase price of a home in Seaside is around 2.5 million dollars –2.3 million euros–, as indicated by the real estate portal live30a.com, would we be facing an elitist city that is more than inclusive?
Duany denies this: "It is not fair to judge Seaside by the phenomenon of real estate value growth. As is well known, the vast majority of quality housing estates and neighborhoods have become terribly expensive. Why accuse Seaside of elitism and Not to New York, Boston or San Francisco? In response to the criticism of exclusivity, I must say that the city promotes a rental program whereby the entire town functions as a hotel, offering rooms with very wide ranges. Americans often have a two-week vacation, homeowners have the option of benefiting from their investment by renting their cottages for the rest of the year instead of keeping them vacant. "
Pedro Torrijos, architect and collaborator of ICON Design, questions this inclusive way of urban planning facing the outside. "These urban plans what they purport to be is a moral and architectural washing of the classic North American upper-middle class suburb, which was born as a consequence of the rapid residential construction that took place in the mid-20th century. In cases like Seaside, where all the houses are the same and the avenues are identical, there is also an internal uniformity because nobody is going to want their neighbor to be different from him. In a state like Florida, whose land becomes more expensive due to the demand of good weather, we speak of wealthy people who he wants neighbors like them. "
Would this negate any community function attributable to an urban planning plan? "The feeling of community could be created with or without it. In the end, it all depends on the neighbors around us. Having a relationship of affection, love, emotional and social interdependence with your neighbors is always a good thing, but you cannot force yourself to that comes up. "
Founder Robert Davis stresses that inclusiveness has always been a Seaside priority. Supporting artist residency programs and the creation of a theater company are some of the measures they have carried out. "We are now launching initiatives that help improve local transportation so that older residents can age with ease. We also encourage architects, developers and urban planners to come to our city to learn about New Urbanism techniques," he says. Davis.
An acclaimed example of 'xeriscaping'
Meanwhile, Seaside has been praised for its ecological character and sustainable character. The passive use of its natural resources as well as the planting of trees and native plants are some of the challenges that have accompanied the urban planning code of the city since its inception. "Before there was xeriscaping - a term referring to the design and construction of gardens that help conserve water in areas prone to drought - we already established in Seaside standards to minimize irrigation and the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The fact that only grass is allowed to be planted in public spaces, for example, is based on reducing water consumption, "says its founder.
Journalist JP Faber applauds in the work Los Nuevos Pioneros (BenBella Books, 2017) the vertical planning of Seaside streets in relation to the coast. This allows fresh air currents to penetrate more easily throughout the city, reducing energy consumption in summer. The use of tin roofs that reflect sunlight and the moderate height of the houses - continues Faber - manages to minimize the carbon footprint in any building, translating into a lower cost when heating or cooling it. Promoting mobility on foot or the use of the bicycle are other measures that emphasize the sustainable character of the New Urbanism constructions.
Seaside is the utopian city, the eternal vacation spot, under a strict urban code that orders, controls and gives identity to its residents through aesthetic uniformity. "Any urban plan harbors an intention to control, since it is the way that makes it possible for a citizen life to work", Torrijos explains. "That illusion of control makes the citizen feel welcome, safe and can enjoy a quiet and peaceful life. For this reason, the most expensive places are not that they are better, but that they are more guarded. Inside, it ends eliminating any deviation, which makes residents end up in uniform. "
Truman Burbank's character was an exception and he preferred to leave a peaceful and controlled reality to live his own. As unknown or insecure as it was.