“The place is so extraordinary that those who watch the film do not believe that Seaside could really exist. In fact, everyone thinks the village was entirely built for the occasion, naturally in Hollywood,” says the film’s 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 full of lights, megastores, aquasplash parks, and seaside restaurants where you can eat lobsters for a few dollars. An hour’s drive south, there is Seaside, a small pastel-colored village, quiet, warm, and welcoming. Designed and built on a human scale.
We are far from the crowded beach areas of the peninsula. Here there isn’t much tourism even though the warm Yucatán current pleasantly heats the sea and the very white beaches guarantee a tan that would envy 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 that strange “squeak” caused by small grains of quartz rubbing against each other is already relaxing. Living then in Seaside, in a cottage by the sea, is the ultimate.
In Seaside, many houses are by the sea. However, all are very close to the center; a center with a post office, a supermarket, a church, and a school.
An advanced urban solution
The town was built in 1980 leaving nothing to chance. Designed by Robert Davis, Seaside was planned and realized by internationally renowned American architects including Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Andres Duany of the DPZ company in Miami.
The slow and continuous abandonment of metropolitan areas in search of more livable places but still close to work has proved, over time, to be a wrong choice. In recent decades, Americans, sometimes attracted by seemingly attractive housing solutions, other times driven by silent economic powers, have ended up emptying their big cities, now reduced to simple containers for service and commercial activities. They emptied them only to find themselves relegated to anonymous zones of a distant suburb, tied down tightly to the automobile. After many years of this phenomenon, the most aware architects have noticed a timid reversal of trend. Among ordinary people, there has begun to spread a strong need for humanity, without however wanting to give up the 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 bedroom communities, sometimes degraded and often dangerous.
The idea of revising the urban setup of the suburbs found favor among professionals, and architects set to work to find a quick solution 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. All, however, think of a “humanization” of suburban agglomerations, a downsizing possible only by creating livable and healthy environments that especially favor human relationships.
The experiment began starting from areas near small and medium towns.
Pastel-colored houses and “living” materials for the human-scale town
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 that many consider “alive,” with a soul; but above all because it is a local material. The houses were made even cozier by painting them with soft pastel colors. The road paving was made with gray granite integrated with terracotta bricks; although at first, the architects, perhaps taken by excessive enthusiasm, had covered the streets with shell fragments to ideally link the town to the sea, so near and so present in local life. But since it was too uncomfortable to walk on, the current solution was preferred, certainly more practical.
All 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 leisure time in absolute relaxation. Among other things, the designers believe that the veranda encourages good neighborly relations, bringing life back to a more human dimension. Furthermore, it is easier to keep an eye on children playing outdoors.
Garages are at the back of the houses, and access is possible 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. Nearby are swimming pools, golf and tennis courts, and of course, greenery everywhere.
The blue color of the sky and the sound of the waves heard in the distance contribute to making life serene in this human-scale town, where vacation reigns supreme over everyday life.
