Marina Port Valencia redefines its waterfront with a new landscape project

The landscape acts as a link between architecture, water, and the city in the port environment.

The landscaping project for Marina Port Valencia proposes a comprehensive transformation of the port waterfront with the aim of reconnecting the city with the sea through a continuous green infrastructure. The intervention, carried out by GM Paisajistas in coordination with the ERRE team, redefines this historic area as an accessible, active public space prepared for year-round use and adapted to the climatic conditions of the Mediterranean coastline.

The design is based on a clear idea: to turn Marina Port Valencia into a coastal extension of the city, overcoming the traditional fragmentation of port space. To achieve this, the project is tied together by a “green ribbon” running through the three marinas, from Marina Norte to Marina Sur via Marina City, structuring the whole as an urban route that organizes uses, facilitates active mobility on foot, by bicycle, and through sport, and introduces shade, coolness, and places to linger by the water.

The landscape aims to offer users a unique experience by incorporating functional nature into a demanding port environment. The proposal embraces progressive renaturalization through a plant palette inspired by the Mediterranean coastline, with species adapted to salinity, wind, solar radiation, and substrate limitations. The vegetation is arranged in different layers to generate biodiversity, reduce water consumption, and ensure the long-term durability of the project.

The project integrates architecture, green spaces, and the water surface into a continuous sequence of public spaces. Along the route, shaded stretches, rest areas, viewpoints, and activity points alternate, opening up views toward the dock and the maritime horizon, turning the sea into an active element of the urban experience rather than just a scenic backdrop.

Marina Port Valencia is thus conceived as a space for coexistence and everyday life, capable of accommodating sport, healthy mobility, and economic activity without giving up its identity as a marina. The landscape acts as a mediator between the existing industrial character and the new urban uses, integrating the port heritage into a contemporary reading of the waterfront.

From an environmental perspective, the project incorporates sustainability criteria from the outset. The selection of native species or those adapted to the maritime climate makes it possible to reduce irrigation and maintenance needs, increase resilience to episodes of wind and salinity, and consolidate a stable plant system. Shade is understood as an essential climate infrastructure, combining trees, palm trees, and complementary elements to guarantee thermal comfort along the route.

The project is not limited to creating an ornamental landscape, but introduces nature as a foundation for well-being, identity, and climate adaptation. The reuse and transplanting of existing vegetation, whenever viable, helps accelerate the consolidation of green areas and reduce the environmental footprint of the intervention.

With this proposal, Marina Port Valencia moves toward a contemporary waterfront model in which landscape becomes the axis of urban transformation: a continuous, recognizable, and deeply Mediterranean coastal space, designed to be lived in, explored, and enjoyed in direct contact with the sea.