Atlantis 27.4: Preview by ATLANTIS

ATLANTIS MAGAZINE FOR URBANISM & LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

#27.4: towards uncertainty preview The Urban River Corridors of Bucharest - A design workshop

#27.4 JUNE 2017

dialogues TOWARDS UNCERTAINTy

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The Urban River Corridors of Bucharest A design workshop

Between 4-10 March 2017, 32 students, researchers and young professionals participated in the international design workshop â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Urban River Corridors of Bucharestâ&#x20AC;? (URCB), organized as part of the ongoing PhD research of Claudiu Forgaci on resilient urban river corridors conducted at TU Delft. The URCB workshop was a provocative design exercise and a good collaboration case as it brought together designers from different disciplines, universities and cultural backgrounds. The workshop was designed in such a way that it exposed participants to a set of difficulties which we as designers encounter in our profession: multi-disciplinary and multicultural collaboration, dealing with an unknown urban context, multi-scalar and methodical design. The design goal assigned to the teams was to reveal hidden links and improve the socio-ecological integration between Bucharest and its two rivers.

Anca Ioana Ionescu,

Junior Researcher, Chair of Urban Design, Department of Urbanism, TU Delft

Monika Novkovikj,

EMU student, Urbanism TU Delft

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“One City. Two Rivers.” This is the title that announced the workshop, referring to the city of Bucharest, crossed by its two rivers, Dâmbovița and Colentina. Bucharest has a dysfunctional relationship with its rivers which are in general completely absent from the mind maps of its inhabitants. Dâmbovița was changed from a meandreous wetland into a canal, while Colentina was cut off from the city by an uncontrolled process of lake-side privatization and an uncertain property system. The participants had to deal with the complex context of Bucharest, yet another city facing transitional pains and which has a lot to offer. Pierced by the two rivers, Bucharest opens to four significant waterfronts which host numerous interlaced programs. The waterbodies run across the city shifting between the six municipal sectors, assigned with the urban plan for the city. Each sector is characterized by specific conditions and holds unique potentials in relation to the water. As a consequence of the socio-economic and political dynamics of the past twenty years, the strips along the rivers are subject to ongoing transformations. These are often out of accordance with the actual climate tendencies as well as the natural forces in combination with the state of the existing infrastructure. Namely, Bucharest’s control on the water flow is established via a dam structure which is rather outdated, thus posing a potential safety threat on the greater city area. The uncertainty imposed by the flood protection system, combined with the unpredictable money-driven

attitude towards development along the waterfronts, provides a fertile ground for alternative design approaches so as to ameliorate the negative impact on people and the environment. The URCB workshop was organized in such a way that it effectively illustrated to the participants the current scope of problems derived from the context. Multiple informative lectures on Bucharest introduced the local history of urban planning and floods, which established the flood protection system and the artificial lakes, environmental policies and current attempts to reshape the waterfronts in a more resilient way. The lectures and working sessions were preceded by exploratory site visits in order to understand the problems at stake and to obtain a holistic perception of the water-urbanization relationship in Bucharest. Four instructive tools provided guidance on how to approach urban challenges of this sort when designing with urban rivers. The Connector, the Sponge, the Integrator and the Scaler were the four instruments proposed by Claudiu Forgaci to support the process of design. Imagination and the unique identity of each team led to innovative and distinct strategic projects. The eight teams (four assigned to Dâmbovița River and four to Colentina chain of Lakes) brought together participants from the field of urbanism, landscape architecture, architecture, geography, ecology, and biology. There was an exchange of knowledge between professional fields, universities and cultural backgrounds. The outcome displayed a variety of pertinent visions and strategies.

1. Site trip in Văcărești Delta (D4 site), an inner city unfinished project where nature took over. Participants are sitting on its concrete edge. © Monika Novkovikj 2. Site visit on Colentina River, Fundeni Lake (C3 site), an area inhabited by informal communities. © Anca Ioana Ionescu

The workshop addressed the issue of uncertainty by providing a complex setup and guidelines to dealing with it. First, by focusing on the social and ecological integration of urban river corridors, it created a complex equation for collaboration: multidisciplinary teams brought together from different cultural contexts, educational backgrounds and domains, both from practice and academia; second, it addressed the complex topic of ecological and social integration along urban river corridors in a place where uncertainty lays all over the city aspects; eight international talks were meant to shed light on the topic. Third, the design instruments were the test tools provided to the participants to handle this unknown complexity. Last, the laboratory-like setting was a neutral ground for co-working, set in an innovative makerspace on the bank of Dâmbovița River, accommodated in a former communist factory. Despite the short time span, this setup lead to positive results, good team performance and innovative proposals. The much debated issues such as coworking and collaboration, the gap between practice and academia, the variety of methods and theories at stake were turned into potential resources. Such experiences are aimed to train us as designers to enjoy, share and learn from collaboration with other experts from different fields, academic backgrounds and cultures. At the same time, identifying methods, theories or frameworks that stimulate our creativity and design input help us deal with complex projects,

unknown cities and uncertain futures. The URCB workshop was a creative challenge which led to an optimistic professional positioning in respect to uncertainty, to a better collaboration with colleagues from professional fields related to urbanism, and to pertinent project proposals with a courageous attitude towards the matter of uncertainty.

3. Groups working together during the Scale up! session. © Johanna Jacob 4. Team work: understanding the connectivity of the site. © Sebastian Apostol

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/ Reclaiming the Shore Site: Lake Grivița Team: Gertie van den Bosch, George Bouroș, Karina Pitiș, Ioana-Eveline Răduță The proposal reclaims, restores and protects the shores from private urban developments through minimal and natural interventions. It enforces connectivity and accessibility with a new bridge and a continuous pathway along the river banks. In further phases, more shores would be reclaimed and open spaces would be connected, acting as “stepping stones” for ecological systems. An ecoduct, a natural park with indigenous plants, honey production, allotment gardens, and an outdoor museum are proposed to raise awareness and to involve the community.

/ Opening the gates. Decentralising, Re-orienting, Re-naturalizing Lake Herăstrău Site: Park Herăstrău Team: Iulia Dana Băceanu, Anca-Ioana Crețu, Simona Dolana, Rajat Uchil

Lake Herăstrău is the most accessible and popular lake of the Colentina river corridor. Yet, its success leads to overcrowding, degradation of natural environment and disconnection from the rest of the corridor. The analysis done via the four design instruments reveals the importance of drawing on a multi-scalar strategy to re-orient daily and seasonal users to other parks via the ‘nodes’. Re-naturalising a submerged system layered by human intervention would allow for a cohesive social-ecological integration on site and at larger scales.

/ The amphibian communities of Fundeni lake Site: Lake Fundeni Team: Johanna Jacob, Jean-Baptiste Peter, Iarina Tavă, Andreea Toma Fundeni Lake offers a rich environment with an interesting diversity of fauna, flora and communities. By walking along the lake, one experiences the openness of the environment in an intimate relation with nature. This intimacy is threatened by uncontrolled development, extensive privatization of land and the degradation of the natural environment. This is a result of lack of awareness, certain poverty and an exclusive understanding of nature and culture. The project generates an amphibious place which empowers and connects local communities by encouraging bottom-up initiatives.

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/ The Hinge Site: Lake Pantelimon Team: Silvia Cazacu, Giulia Gritti, Christian Patriciu Popescu, Anita Stamatoiu The area around Pantelimon lake is heterogeneous and disconnected. Uncontrolled sprawl fails to integrate with both, the urban setting and the natural landscape. Incoherent infrastructure development has resulted in a nonhierarchical spatial organization and difficulty in accessing the waterfront. As a response, the project envisions a vocation for each lakeside area based on its topography, architectural and ecological characteristics in different space-time scenarios. The dam at the center of the Dobroești Lake becomes a hinge articulating urban activities in a resilient river environment.

/ Reinvent by Design Site: Lake Morii Team: Magda Baidan, Cezar Conțiu, Ruxandra Grigoraș, Monika Nokovikj Based on the necessity to connect Lake Morii with its urban surroundings and in response to the area’s ecological potential, the project proposes a circular solution to improve the socio-ecological features of three chosen sites and to integrate Morii within the city on a micro-/meso- scale. The proposal is a mentality-changing ‘gateway’ towards a more integrated urban space. It envisions a tentacular development process which grows through scales and reactivates the lake and its surroundings through social and educational functions.

/ Dambovita from barrier to link. Site: Mihai Vodă / Izvor Team : Maricruz Gazel, Cristina Ștefan, Doina Dumitrescu, Alexandru Mexi The ‘stiches strategy’ envisions the river as an attractive part of the city by developing multiple catalysing connections across the river, which would gradually enhance a coherent strategy at a longitudinal level (along Dâmbovița river). The focus of the intervention is the PLATFORM which works as a STITCH, connecting riverside areas in a two-phase process. Stitches are gradually set and multiplied, and traffic is diverted to one shore. The STICH improves the connections between the riverside and its sorrounding urban fabric, overcoming spatial and mental barriers at different scales.

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/ Closing the Gap Site: National Library Team: Zhouyiqi Chen, Cristina Iordache, Alexandra Mirona Man, Lucian-Ștefan Călugărescu

/ Linking Park Site: Lake Văcărești Team: Cristina Wong, Daniele Caruso, Irina Mateescu, Bianca Tămășan

The site located in one of the most central areas of Bucharest is surrounded by a number of important public destinations, such as the National Library, the Comic Opera, Unirii Shopping Center and the Court House. The site is a transit place, not used at its full potential because of ecological disconnections and poor quality of public space. The proposal transforms the unused space around the library into an attractive area by linking the historical monastery to a new park, developed on an unfinished construction site.

Lake Văcărești has a unique ecosystem that must be preserved. At the same time, boundaries of the lake, Dâmbovița river, the traffic roads and the adjacent neighbourhoods are a cumulus of visual and physical barriers between the city and the lake. The design creates a green buffer as a containment strategy, whilst being a place for social interaction. The proposal takes advantage of existing public spaces, residual and green areas, considered ‘patches’, in order to extend the natural qualities of the ecological reserve to surrounding urban areas. •

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