“The place is so extraordinary that those who watch the film do not believe that Seaside could really exist. In fact, everyone thinks that the village was built entirely for the occasion, naturally in Hollywood,” says the film producer Edward S. Feldman.
We went to discover Seaside. On the northwest coast of Florida, almost at the border with Alabama, there is Pensacola, one of many American towns rich with lights, megastores, aquasplash parks, and seaside restaurants where you can eat lobsters for a few dollars. An hour’s drive south is Seaside, a small pastel-colored village, quiet, warm, and welcoming. Designed and built on a human scale.
We are very far from the crowded seaside resorts of the peninsula. There is not much tourism here even though the warm Yucatán current pleasantly warms the sea and the very white beaches guarantee a tan to envy for anyone. The sand of the sugar beaches has a high percentage of quartz and is so white that it reflects the heat and remains cool even in the Florida summer sun. Walking barefoot on the cool beach and listening to the strange “squeak” caused by the small quartz grains rubbing against each other is in itself relaxing. Living in Seaside, in a seaside cottage, is the ultimate.
In Seaside there are many houses on the seashore. However, all are very close to the center; a center with the post office, supermarket, church, and school.
An advanced urban planning solution
The town was built in 1980 without leaving anything to chance. Designed by Robert Davis, Seaside was planned and built by renowned American architects including Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Andres Duany of the DPZ company from Miami.
The slow and continuous abandonment of metropolises in search of more livable places but still close to one’s work has proven, over time, to be a wrong choice. In recent decades, Americans, sometimes attracted by seemingly appealing housing solutions, other times pushed by silent economic powers, ended up emptying their large cities, which today have been reduced to simple containers of service and commerce activities. They emptied them only to find themselves relegated to anonymous areas of a remote suburb, tightly bound to the automobile. After many years of this phenomenon, the most attentive architects have noticed a timid reversal of trend. Among ordinary people, a strong need for humanity has begun to spread, without however wanting to give up acquired well-being.
It was thought to apply new urban criteria to those small centers very close to metropolises, which have become, as seen, huge dormitory suburbs, sometimes degraded and often dangerous.
The idea of reviewing the urban layout of the suburbs therefore gained ground among professionals, and architects set about seeking a rapid resolution to this new problem. Some thought of the systematic recovery and transformation of already existing residential areas. Others opted for the construction of new residential realities. However, all think of a “humanization” of suburban agglomerations, a resizing which is possible only by creating livable and healthy environments, and which above all encourages human relationships.
The experiment began by starting from areas near small and medium-sized towns.
Pastel-colored houses and “living” materials for a human-scale city
Seaside is one of the best examples of this new American trend. To build the town’s houses, the romantic Victorian style was preferred and wood was used, a material many consider “alive,” with a soul; but especially because it is a local material. The houses were then made even more welcoming by painting them in soft pastel colors. The street paving was made of gray granite integrated with terracotta bricks; although initially, the architects, perhaps too enthusiastic, had covered the streets with all fragments of shells, to ideally connect the town to the sea, so close and so present in local life. But since it was too uncomfortable to walk on, the current solution, certainly more practical, was preferred.
All the houses are two stories, with a large living room on the ground floor and the sleeping area upstairs. All have a bright and welcoming veranda where you can spend some of your free time in absolute relaxation. Among other things, the designers believe that the veranda fosters good neighborly relationships, bringing life back to a more human dimension. In addition, it is easier to keep an eye on children playing outdoors.
Garages are at the back of the houses and are accessed without cars passing in front of the houses: therefore smog, noise, dangers, and traffic are eliminated. There are bike paths everywhere and the omnipresent megastore is replaced by a well-stocked family-run grocery store. Not far away are swimming pools, golf and tennis courts, and of course there is greenery everywhere.
The blue color of the sky and the sound of waves heard in the distance contribute to making life peaceful in this human-scale town, where vacation reigns supreme over daily life.
