Bowring, JacquelineVance, NancyAbbott, Michael R.2020-01-212016-02-19https://hdl.handle.net/10182/11330The line on a map that separates sea from land – the coastline – has thickness, depth and richness. As a liminal space, the coastline is a threshold that is at once of the sea and of the land. Rather than a binary condition of either/or, sea or land, the coastal zone is a both/and condition. For landscape architects, this coastal realm presents a space of opportunity, where physical or perceptual interventions can affect and enrich experience. What are the range of ways in which this liminal space might be traversed, occupied, looked from, or looked at? In this paper we draw on the works of authors who have challenged binary conditions in the landscape (Krauss, 1979; Meyer, 1997), and extend this dialogue on liminality to the interface with the sea. Just as the ‘thick black line’ (Solomon, 1989) between architecture and landscape has been revealed to be a spatial field in its own right, the line of the coast is a potent domain of experiential possibilities. The recognition of the coast ‘line’ as a place of possibility offers a compelling frame for imagining the possibilities of rising sea levels. Often conceptualized as a battle, where the waterfront is like the Western Front – a line between opposing forces – we propose a reconceptualization of prospective relationships between land and sea. Rather than battling or retreating, we suggest that the recognition of the liminal zone’s possibilities offers a way of ‘inviting’ the sea onto the land. This means seeing the sea not as a monotone blue sheet abutting the land, but as an equal other. We investigate this through exploring plan and map views, as well as sectional views, all of which reveal a richness of continuity, a porosity between land and sea and air, a realm of possibility.1enoceanConference Contribution - published