Ancona Waterline Lab. The Threshold Between the City and Port Systems as Design Opportunity for Urban Regeneration of Spatial Fractures: The Case Study of a Didactic Summer School

The educational experience presented is the first edition of "Ancona Waterline Lab", an international Summer School funded by the DICEA Department of Excellence at UNIVPM and included in the Italian Pavilion at the 2025 Biennale “Terrae Aquae”. The initiative aims to bring young researchers and students closer to port design, promoting architectural research as a tool for addressing the relationship between the city and the sea and consolidating international networks of scholars in the sector. The laboratory investigated border territories and urban-port "thresholds" through the “research by design” method, viewed as opportunities for configuring high-quality public services. Seventy international students analyzed the Doric port arc through sections perpendicular to the shoreline, reinterpreting the "nodes," "connections," and "landscape" of the waterfront. Within this didactic perspective, thresholds are transformed from limits into generative devices of urbanity and infrastructure, offering a methodological model for the contemporary port-city. The design activity was integrated by scientific exchange with the parallel international conference "Waterlines", which brought together experts and designers on port themes. The produced visions promote the adaptive reuse of heritage and the strengthening of the link between ecosystems and public spaces, outlining a continuous, accessible, and multifunctional waterfront.