Planning Capital Cities

Bucharest urban planning is seen as a sequence of stages in the concentrated
effort towards the creation of the urban plans:

1. the preparation stage in the first decade of the 20th century - with
   the moment of 1906 public contest for Bucharest Urban Plan as the
   first attempt to set a common goal for city’s development; marked
   by the activity of Eng. Al. Davidescu, the forerunner of Romanian
   urban planning whose great achievement was the success in
   defining the need for scientific urban planning


2. the layout and start in the 1910-1920s – with the General Urban Plan
   approved in 1921 (PGS|21) authored by Eng. C. Sfințescu; marked
   by Sfintescu’s efforts that led to the settlement of Romanian urban
   planning: research, journals, laws, official associations, consistent
   international presence.


3. early maturity in the 1930s - the Guiding Urban Plan approved in
   1935 (PDS|35) and the efforts of Eng. T. Rădulescu and Arch. I.
   Davidescu in all phases of the planning process following the plan’s
   approval, and the excitement stirred by the first comprehensive
   planning laws to set the grounds for urban planning. PDS|35 was
   at the heart of the planning debate starting 1928 till long after its
   approval.

The following elements highlight a comprehensive overview of Bucharest
urban planning at the beginning of the 20th century:

• the progress and acknowledgement of the fundamental differences
  between urban plans and street alignment plans


• the gradual transition of urban planning towards the social welfare


• uncontrolled territorial expansion acknowledged as the major
  problem of cities

Andreea Udrea

The first urban plans of Bucharest in the rise of

the 20th century