Planning Capital Cities

Maria Duda

Shifts. A brief history of public plazas in central

Bucharest

Introduction

The study focuses on the central public spaces of Bucharest, recognised, both
by city dwellers and professionals, as being of identity-giving importance to
the city: Victoriei, Romana, Revolution, Unirii Plazas and University Square. The
aim is to offer a historical overview of their evolution, as part of their affirming
the status of a capital to Bucharest: what political and cultural ideological shifts
translated into shape and altered significance for the central public spaces?

The covered time span stretches from 1846 to 2014, and the study is structured
in four time bands, corresponding to important shifts in the political and
cultural contexts, overlapped with the cartographic development of Bucharest.
We start with Borrocyzn plan, in 1846, to 1919, continue with the inter-war
period, followed by the communist regime period, 1947-1989, and end with the
post-revolutionary period to the present, 1990-2014

Starting from the definitions of shift, the methodology of the paper constructs the
analysis as a historical overview around the following features of public spaces:
morphology, function/role, dominant/representative buildings, accessibility,
significance, art, nomenclature. The analysis will thereafter attempt to determine
the interdependence between the built, delimitated framework and the degree of
attractiveness, the type of usage that it determines and how the ramification of
individual and official meanings lead to creating the character of such public spaces.

First Period, 1846-1911

The first time band marked the beginning of the planned urban development
for Bucharest, triggered by a dense series of defining political events.