Planning Capital Cities

(Barré) #1

housing was still being built in Bucharest, without any legal documentation.
The urban principles of the new systematization are briefly expressed in the
decision^10 :



  • an increase in population to 1.500.000-1.700.000 inhabitants and
    subsequent territorial limits;

  • the preservation of the radial-annular circulation system, with
    improvements of boulevards and representative squares (in the
    case of the new monumental buildings, classical, national and soviet
    examples are pointed out as inspiration);

  • the introduction of the metro lines;

  • the channeling and navigability of the Dâmbovița river by connecting
    it to the Bucharest-Danube channel and by creating a wider river-
    bed and a reservoir at Ciurel;

  • a rather ludicrous idea of constructing a fluvial port on Dâmbovița
    for passengers;

  • monumental entrances to the city on the main roads and railroads;

  • building housing on surfaces of 5-10ha., organized in cvartals;

  • introducing the complex ensemble as the main rule of urban
    development; the ensembles were to be completely equipped, with
    a maximum density of 300 inhabitants/ha. and a maximum built
    area of 25-30% of the surface;

  • a maximum height of the buildings expressed this time in floors,
    rather than meters and limited in general to 6 floors. On main
    boulevards the buildings could be 8-10 floors and in the periphery
    they could decrease to 4 floors. Individual buildings with one or two
    floors were restricted to the inner areas of the housing ensembles,
    so as not to affect the new image of the city;

  • the limitation and relocation towards the periphery of most
    industrial areas; erasing the difference between the city center and
    its periphery by establishing cultural amenities and equipment in all
    housing ensembles; the preservation of existing architectural and
    natural monuments;

  • the preservation of the existing parks and the establishment of new
    ones;

  • other less important provisions for our subject.^11


Though this decision represents a legal framework for new systematization
plans for 100 towns in Romania and there was a deadline imposed for a new
plan for the capital in 1953, the plan for Bucharest was not elaborated until



  1. In fact only the systematization plan for Galați was approved in this
    interval. The effect of the lack of systematization was a reduced scale of the
    interventions at this time and their territorial limitation.


The architectural style promoted and basically enforced was socialist
realism with a strong ban on modernism, functionalism or rationalism or any
architectural manifestation connected to “cosmopolitism”. When planning


Bucharest’s urban planning instruments during the communist regime:
systematization sketches, plans, projects and interventions
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