The project, worth 120 million euros, includes a port for more than 1,000 yachts, a bridge connecting the marina with the shore, a yacht club building and a landscaped park that houses restaurants and cafes.
The basis of the layout of the water area of the marina is a grid of reinforced concrete pontoons with vertical walls, which will serve for mooring small boats. And in order to reliably protect the yachts and their owners from the vagaries and unrest of the open sea, the architect surrounds the berths with a breakwater made of boulders. This structure, which is already practically built today, has been given the shape of a giant horseshoe, cutting into the blue surface with a spectacular stone ridge.
Most of the berths are landscaped, buried in greenery and a landscape park located on the shore, indented with pedestrian paths and filled with all kinds of restaurants, cafes, shops and gazebos designed for admiring the sea and yachts. The park covers a huge area - 27 thousand square meters - and was conceived by Calatrava as a green oasis of city-wide significance, a kind of buffer, leveling the contrast between the daily life of Salerno and the high-society atmosphere of yachting. The share of commercial real estate objects, as well as comfortable recreation areas here accounts for more than 8 thousand square meters.
The building of the yacht club promises to become the hallmark of the complex. It is located in the center of a 70-meter canal separating the quay area from the landscape park, and is connected to the coast and the marina by a system of pedestrian bridges. The architectural image of this object perfectly matches its function - a snow-white building, growing out of the water, resembles an elegant and fast-moving yacht. Through the transparent walls, surrounded by white "ribs", one can see the "deck" floors, and the pointed pylon of the bridge, ascended high into the sky, one would like to interpret as the mast of this unusual ship. As for the "sail", Calatrava bends it in such a way as to protect the upper open terrace from precipitation and hot sun. However, this element also plays an important constructive role, providing additional stability to the building located on the water.
A. M.
