A dissection of the past. Architecture as Instrument

Abstract

The image of contemporary Bucharest is the result of a long series of successive accumulations and destructions of the urban tissue. The trauma of the communist regime still persists in the urban voids as well as in the tense relations they generate, although they also give the town its specific contrast. In the context of rising real estate pressure on central areas, these unused resources have the potential to become the target of architectural projects, but their character, that of interstitial spaces makes them very difficult to approach. This article presents a possible approach of a site located in a protected area in the centre of Bucharest, an area that is at the same time, an example of improperly used space between the curtains of flats belonging to the 1980-1989 systematizations and the traditional urban tissue of Bucharest. Given the premises of Bucharest becoming a European cultural capital, there is a chance to question the cultural, social and architectural potential of these spaces and their use in improving the quality of the public space in Bucharest.