If before 1989 our towns were being transformed following grand initiatives coming from a high level – the state being both limited partner and designer in large urban operations – today, in 2006, having complete freedom, we are already witnessing an uncontrolled urban development together with the appearance of a new series of works comparable to those before the Revolution from the point of view of their scale. The tower near the Sf. Iosif cathedral or the one near the Armeneasca Church, the Esplanada project, the new project for Piata Palatului – on which you may find further details in the magazine – or the enormous building neighboring the Palatul Telefoanelor, which reiterates accurately a part of the former National Theatre, but is doing that with arcades built out of plaster, and embellished with decorations, on the hallucinating background of a smoky curtain wall… These are just a few recent projects and they are only in downtown Bucharest.
From a legal standpoint, all these works are perfectly alright. But, by their urban scale, they influence both the constructed town and those inhabiting it – the people. They are never consulted, giving you the feeling that it does not matter anyway… Is it really so? Certainly not. There is no question here about transparently organizing design competitions, welcoming everybody and having competent juries. Today, everything takes place behind closed doors, and it consists of mere city hall planners and architects or of bids in which professional criteria do not always prevail.
Real estate profiteering is also common in other European cities, perhaps even more than in Bucharest, but even for big private works which influence the town by their scale and impact, the Municipality and the developers organize debates and public competitions, and they respect their results, and all such actions are natural and the cities look differently… out of many examples, let’s consider that of Barcelona, an impeccably systematized metropolis, which is packed up with quality architecture, where even a 80 sqm building located in the outskirts is designed following a competition and where mayor Joan Clos has been reelected since 1997… This should be a good example for our politicians.
