Urban planning through major planning documents after 1999: urban centrality between vision and realityThis second wave of centralities is consistent with a major shift in residential
mobility characterized by both outward movement as well as new residential
compounds inside the city; generally based on reconquering unbuilt land,
refunctionalising older communist buildings (Circul Foamei) or reconverting
industrial facilities etc. New changes in lifestyle and a certain shopping culture
as well as a construction boom that multiplied office spaces in the northern
central strip of the city, led to the multiplication of malls and shopping centers
around the end of the period.A third generation of mainly commercial centralities is concentrated in the
post-real-estate period where the urban expansion, affected by the crisis,
slowed down and, for a while, so did consumerism. If for 1-2 years some
facilities were built more from inertia rather than from a visionary plan, it is
interesting to see that the emplacement is usually favoring areas that were left
behind by the previous extensive development, closer to the dense fabric of
the city and offering a better mix of activities, including time spending facilities
such as indoor sports. As such, Băneasa Shopping Center, Afi Palace Cotroceni,
Sun Plaza and more recently Promenada Mall are taking advantage of certain
opportunities created by the development pattern of the city.Nevertheless, resuming on the development of commercial centralities, several
downsides can be highlighted:- with very few exceptions they privilege car accessibility without a
special regard to public transportation, mainly demonstrated by
their bad connectivity to the public transportation network; as
results from some interviews with two mall manager (classified) in
some cases car access is privileged even to pedestrian access;
Fig. 4
Bucharest: left: large-scale
commercial facilities; right: the
localization of main office areas.
(CSB2035, interpretation by
Alexandru)