• Harbour
• Medina
• Tangier
• Urban Planning

Tangier, founded by the Phoenician, for millennia has been located on the edge of the Old World. The city is located on the south-west coast of the Strait of Gibraltar and extends its arms on the Mediterranean Sea towards the Atlantic Ocean, becoming the gate of North Africa from the Strait of Gibraltar.
During the Roman Empire, Tangier was the port and the administrative capital of the Mauretania Tingitana, therefore the structure of the city was modified with the typical shape based on the cardo and decumanus. During the 8th century, Tangier became an Arab military outpost supporting the invasion of Spain. After the discovery of the New World, the city became for centuries an important trading center. Thus the Medina, the commercial hub of Tangier, in this context maintained the Roman military structure. Since the 15th century, under the domination of Portugal, United Kingdom, Spain and France the construction of the city walls, the bastions and the Velho (old) and Novo (new) Castle were completed; Tangier reaches the apex of its defensive system in the 17th century, when the English will repair the walls and add the bastions. The structure of the current harbour was shaped during these centuries of wars.
During the 20th century, the creation of the free-trade zone and the consequent strong increase of commerce and foreign investments, interrupted the historical relationship between the Old City and the sea, moving away the sea from the city and creating a coastal area with a strong criticism. Contributed on one side to the enormous growth of its harbour, and to the other side to the decline of its relationship with the ancient city and its fortification that was no longer in line with times, no longer in "scale" with its harbor and no longer kept alive by its centuries-old defense role.
This study aims to define a project for the valorization of the bastioned waterfront of the old city and its historical memory in a framework of re-conversion of the city port by renovating the ancient connection between them.
The study started from an in-depth historical analysis of the evolution of the city and its defensive system since the 16th century; the results of this analysis has been the basis for further investigations. An urban analysis has been then carried out by highlighting the critical and the valuable elements, in order to define intervention guidelines.