Buzesti Street is one of the central arteries of Bucharest in the middle of a facelift process. Its image changes from day to day, new area urban plans are made and remade, old area urban plans are challenged, the area is becoming even more dense, there is first of all an attempt to limit real estate speculations and to give a planning solution for a number of problems such as those related to the traffic, and secondly, there is the result we can see for the time being, at least from the point of view of the common citizen, which is far from being a satisfactory one.
More exactly, what has been built up to this point is inconsistent in its urban fabric role and it is still questionable regarding the basic problem of architectural quality – a concept that is clear, simple and yet so difficult to define. We could mention the complete lack of public spaces, the disruptions in the traditional fabric down the street, from Matache Square, or the relations with Victoriei Square and with the set of communist blocks of flats by its side, or we could refer to the cheapness of some recently built constructions, all mixed up, sold or leased for a lot of money by claiming the “A Class” slogan and these are just a few examples while we could go on without being able to define what we were saying earlier: the questionable quality of a central urban space of Bucharest.
The building with number 85, recently built (yet not 100% finished), feels like a breath of fresh air in the colorful image of Buzesti Street. Strictly subjectively speaking, we have placed it on the same level as Europe House, somehow built under similar town planning conditions, a few years earlier and a few hundred of meters away. Our point is that it succeeds in imposing a standard. A quiet contract to the communist building it leans against, an urban presence defined by a few coordinates: height, alignment, percents and indicators for a high density, a contemporary facade balancing against the rough silver plating or against the reflecting curtain walls, ubiquitously spread. Not the least important, a red cube funnily hanging from the border of the joining with the neighboring block of flats, a simple contrast or perhaps a sign for the invasion of a rugged old building by a new fresh one.
photo: Stefan Tuchila, Panteli Mourgka
