ABSTRACT The sea is a major route of travelling and culture exchanges. Historically urban settlements have occurred around him, which future depended on the business fluctuations arising from this exchange. El Cabanyal is an example of these settlements and their history has evolved in parallel to the port activity of El Grau. The first known written information about the Cabanyal is related to Jaime I. In the distribution of land of Valencia (known as Repartiment) the king favoured to five hundred sailors that served in the conquest granting for them land located on both sides of the city: in the old fishing district (Barrio de pescadores) near the Town Hall Square and in El Cabanyal. The Valencia districts called El Cabanyal with el Grau, Malvarrosa and Nazaret constitute the eastern boundary of the city of Valencia with the Mediterranean Sea. The key location in the area led to its morph-typological development providing an unique landscape and the additional condition of waterfront of the city. The whole sets up an urban piece with specific qualities that distinguish it from the rest of the city. These specific characteristics can be summarized as: the bioclimatic characteristics, traditional culture, socio-economic model and the natural resources mainly sun, sea and air. Due to its intrinsic qualities, El Cabanyal was declared in 1993 a cultural property of interest (in spanish bien de interés cultural or BIC) with the category of Historic property. This property comprises the original core and its widening to protect the derived agglomeration of adobe houses (typical of Valencia called barraca) and their traditional architecture. On 31 March 2000 the Valencia City Council approved the special plan for the interior reform of the Cabanyal-Canyamelar (PEPRI), and in 2001 the agreement for special inner reforms of the Cabanyal and Canyamelar districts. Both plannings considered linking the city and the sea with the extension of Blasco Ibáñez Avenue through the residential development, causing the demolition of a lot of houses classed as being of historical interest and implementing new types of buildings on both sides of the extension of that avenue, very different from the traditional construction. Since the adoption of PEPRI and after many years of urban diifficulties and neighbourhood movements, El Cabanyal has reached an alarming situation and nowadays it shows a desolate landscape of abandoned architecture. El Cabanyal is in crisis and this fact can not remain simply as a statement. We must create an awareness of action taking into account the historical background of the area and understanding the process of formation and transformation of the structure of the settlement that has gestated a unitary, homogeneous and through organic emplacement which deserves great respect from consideration as architectural heritage of the city of Valencia. The main purpose of this research was to develop an effective reading of a Historic Protected environment of El Cabanyal, with critical awareness, to enable us to highlight the most important aspects that characterize this region (which is the preliminary step for any possible intervention). This reading focused on residential use compared to specialized applications. The evaluation of the residential use evidences in first instance the human features shows more consistency in the processes of formation and transformation of human structures. The objectives that were proposed in this investigation are: 1. To analyse the genesis and evolution of the residential buildings of El Cabanyal. 2. Testing the two-way relationship between building typology and urban morphology and deduction types. 3. Evaluate the implementation model in the territory from the bioclimatic point of view and with the influence in the different types. The research was based on a longitudinal-analytical examination of the processes of formation and transformation of the structures of the buildings of El Cabanyal in four progressive levels of knowledge, starting from the particular to the general: the first level corresponds to the basic building represented by the Fisher people’s barraca (adobe houses). The second level was dedicated to the agglomeration of barracas and the urban landscape created by the accumulation of several barracas in the area. The third level focused on the core of the settlement and its buildings and the fourth and last level on the bioclimatic characteristics of the territory. The analysis was performed using a morphological, typological and environmental reading. The research was undertaken in three phases: In the first phase the state-of-the-art information was searched, including planimetric mapping from its source in the barraca, in various archives, libraries, newspaper and on-line resources. Then we proceeded to flush out the building permits of houses and buildings, both brand new building and redevelopment constructions in the Municipal Archives of Valencia and the Archives of the Heritage Commission of CSI in Valencia. This research was focused in all the El Cabanyal area from year 1900 untill the Spanish Civil War. In the second phase the subject of the study were the original projects of residential architecture from the foreman Juan Bautista Gosálvez and architects Victor Gosálvez and Angel Romaní made in El Cabanyal between 1900 and 1936. The analysis and ranking of these projects enabled extracting the key solutions to the residential problem proposed in the different years and context evaluated in the study. In parallel, a study in situ of the existing barracas in the orchard of Valencia and also of the residential buildings that make up the current frame of El Cabanyal. In this study we also took into account the information obtained from ruins and collapsed houses. From this study we deducted some phases of urban form of the area as well as the typological and constructive aspects most relevant to these traditional buildings. In the third phase, an environmental survey was developed. This survey allowed us to find passive bioclimatic conditions of the area under evaluation. Based on its geographical location and climatic characterization, the bioclimatic diagnosis was established in the neighbourhood through the implementation of the Givoni’s bioclimatic charter. The feasibility of implementing the strategies proposed in the climate-graph depending on the availability of sun and wind on the surroundings of the building. In order to analyse the impact of sunlight on the buildings that conform the Valencian urban fabric of the neighbourhood, a three dimensional model of buildings was developed ranging from calle Reina and San Pedro from east to west and calle de Pescadores and Calle Columbretes on the north-south. Over this three-dimensional model the calculation of the shadowing was done with ECOTECT 2010 software. And in order to analyse the behaviour of the facades over the solar incidence the method proposed in the CTE DB HE4 was used to verify the behaviour of different orientations: east facade, west side, south side, the inner courtyard and west courtyard. The analysis of the samples from the residential buildings of El Cabanyal permitted the definition of a relationship between the building typology and urban morphology, validating the hypothesis that indicated that this relationship was based on the existence of the settlement built together with a different design of the rest of the city. It was also proved in this process that the derivation of existing homes from other non-contemporary, although spontaneous was not accidental but the result of a constant evolution of laws based on a training or typological process. This typological process started when the barraca was moved from the garden shed to the new community of fishermen. Then the unification of the residences began, not as separate elements added if not in society but creating a new part of the town that functioned as an autonomous area. After this, a new type of inherited housing took place, in principle due to the disqualification and banned by the ordinances of the barraca. The new type made an autonomous progression to other types linked to above, having a common parent, but lingering traces of the old establishment in the boundaries between properties that remained constant or with variations due to aggregations and divisions. Thus, the basic type of barraca was replaced by new housing and the successive laws proposed apartment buildings of two or more plants produced specific morphological results: * Type A (AL, AC, AL1, AC1, A2): Single Family Row * Type B (BL, BC, B2, B4): Multi-family row housing with one floor * Type C (CL, CC, C2, C4): Multi-family row with two apartments per floor This process reaches a higher level of aggrupation applied to whole apples, conforming buildings obtained from the juxtaposition of some of the common types of buildings present in the area. These new buildings were arranged in linear blocks to both sides in axial symmetry with respect to an inner courtyard. They respond to singular buildings, remarkable for their simplicity and beauty of composition. Although it is not a characteristic type of the area under evaluation, these type of new buildings appeared to address the issue of housing for fishermen, in parallel to existing circumstances about the rest of the city. Its location was linked to workplace, occupying land outside the historic fabric. The importance of climate in the architectural design is a key factor to evaluate the residence issue in the area of El Cabanyal. It presents suitable conditions for the use of passive bioclimatic strategies due to the climatic conditions of its geographical location, the geometry of its urban fabric and forming parts. With this it is possible obtain conditions of comfort inside buildings without any other external energy input provided than the solar radiation. Any change in the urban fabric, whether tending to alter the relationship between the width of the roads and height of the buildings, or on the orientation of the plot, would only worsen the sustainable urban model. The current form of the sustainable urban model is the result of the Mediterranean tradition and common sense. El Cabanyal is a large area of opportunity due to its position as the city’s seafront. Taking into account the results obtained with the reading developed in this investigation we should plan short-term actions that stops the progressive deterioration of this area. This could be done through different actuations, raising the future of the area with sustainable urban development patterns including different environmental assets based on the five key areas: 1. Development of strategies for sustainability 2. Social action 3. Improved park built 4. Economic recovery 5. Cultural revival ?