Over the last few years, Timisoara has grown to get close to what it once was in the 70’s, namely a place of youth and alternative cultural events, of avant-garde arts and good architecture. Thanks to groups of local artists, some still students, Timisoara is the yearly host of Studentfest, which makes the martyr-town bloom (also) into new ideas during the month of May. Furthermore, the first edition of “Arhirepublik – days of architecture”, organized by a few student-architects, raised questions on the fate of the town, of the historical urban fabric or of the Romanian public space; it included happenings fined by the constabulary, which have been in fact quite successful, discussions sometimes childish, at others times full of meaning.
In the meanwhile, in Bucharest, the Architects’ Order takes some public initiative by suggesting a mini-competition for ideas, named what else but “An Idea for Bucharest”. In architecture, town-planning etc, a competition for ideas is the quintessence of creative debates, which are civilized and free, and it represents the first step towards a transparent choice of future solutions and strategies. As regards the competition started by O.A.R., it has no theme, regulation or highly stimulating prizes: we can only hope for enthusiasm from a significant number of participants. Otherwise, the competition would only remain a slightly propagandistic action, strategically launched around the time of the yearly meeting and the elections for the new management committee. It is in fact a good instrument, which could show the general level of weariness and (lack of) interest of Romanian architects.
At any rate, the blase attitude of our gild is much too seldom shaken by such events. The few cases when architects are invited to televised public debates, at least lately, are quite hilarious: themes such as “Architecture – an elitist profession?” or “What’s to do if a big earthquake strikes?” – to paraphrase just a few – show the professional presence of our gild, as well as its very low visibility.
But don’t get me wrong: poor or memorable TV performances, competitions organized for electoral purposes or others, students’ actions, whether ad hoc or not, they are all really welcome. Even for a few minutes, they put the spotlight on the profession, they communicate to the common people the qualities of the vital surrounding space and they show who are the people able to control it. Romanian architecture is currently in need of such events, as often and as intense as possible, as this is a means to become a profession with a real public exposure, acknowledged as such and generating quality.
