Planning Capital Cities

Mihai Alexandru

The fall of the communism and the new interest in centrality

In the decades following the fall of the communist regime, the main attitudes
towards the city-center can be brought down into two: one that treats the
centrality of the city-center as a content, as a quality attributed to the space
itself, thus stressing on its preservation, attitude that can be assumed as a static
interpretation focusing mainly on the historic city-center; the second approach
focuses on understanding the city-center in a plurality of centers/or places of
centrality, while arguing for its evolution and extensiveness, an attitude that
can be assumed as a more dynamic focus.

Trying to capitalize on its assets, several initiatives and studies are noteworthy:
between 1991 and 1992 the City Hall and the Union of Romanian Architects
launched a planning competition regarding the crossroad of two historical axis

• Lipscani and Moşilor; in 1995, a preparatory study aiming at the identification
  of the historical value and formulating protection measures is drafted at the
  ”Ion Mincu” University of Architecture^6 , entitled ”Restoration Study – the
  Rehabilitation of the Architectural Heritage in no.1 Architecture Reserve of
  Bucharest municipality^7 ; almost in parallel, the Zonal Urban Plan^8 , drafted
  by „Proiect Bucureşti S.A.” provides regulations for the rehabilitation and
  the valorification of the historical city-center, referring to a perimeter that is
  later on reinforced by GO 77/2001^9 , still applicable today. Even though their
  role in delimiting the historic city is recognized, none of the above produced
  operational effects as they were rapidly replaced by newer documents.

In 1995, the Union of Romanian Architects launches an international
competition that aims at ”identifying the possibilities of urban re-integration of
a large part of the central area, that was structurally deteriorated by a radical
intervention ... so that Bucharest should attain specific exigencies, pertaining
to the contemporary center of an European capital”^10. 235 entries, out of 665
registered initially, answered to the following aims: create a flexible, open, and
adjustable environment that could favor a dynamic urban development; to
identify necessary changes according the central area of an European capital;
to wholly reconstruct the coherence in the central zone; the eliminate fractures
and lessen the aggressions caused by the 1980-1989 urban operation. The
winning entry belonging to Von Gerkan Marg was not implemented due to
operational, organisational and financial problems that were much to handle
for an administration that was underprepared at that stage.

General Urban Plan 1999^11

Later on, the city-center is subject to several other plans that add a more
operational dimension, notably the General Urban Plan of Bucharest 1999^12
(ro:PUG en:GUP) together with the adjacent local planning regulation as well as
a series of studies meant to fundament the identity of the city.