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EXTRA-MEDIUM CLUJANALYTICAL WORKSHOP-ANALYZING THE URBAN ANATOMY OF CLUJ-NAPOCA, ROMANIA WITH ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS IN SPRING 2008, USING NORMALITY AS AN ANALYTICAL TOOL.

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Manastur district, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

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team discussion at the extra-medium workshop, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

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Cluj-Napoca

Timisoara

Bucharest

population

density(inhabitant/km 2 )

area(km2 )

GDP per capita(€/capita - 2005)

number of universities 199

93,78

21.698.181

238.392

3680

Iasi

population

area [km2]

density [inhabitant/km2]

GDP/capita [EUR, 2005]

university faculties

21 698 181

238 392

93.78

3 680

199

Romania TimisoaraBucharest ClujIasi

317 660

130.5

2 575

5 072

12

2 067 545

228

8 510

8 115

68

317 953

179.5

1 771

4 528

14

320 888

93.9

3 714

2 500

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Is Cluj THE Second City in Romania?

The people of Cluj used to believe their city is the most important in Transylvania, and the second in Romania. Recent facts and figures show that Cluj is:

-the second in population in Romania after Bucharest. After a slight decline during the 1990s, the number of population (1) has been increasing again during the 2000s.

-the second university-centre in Romania / the second student population after Bucharest. -the second banking city in Romania, with over 30 banks represented, and the only Romanian bank that has its headquarters based outside Bucharest.

-the second potential pole for investments attraction in Romania, after Bucharest. Cluj is the “center” of the “Northwest” development region. The regional division, introduced in Romania in 2004, was rather artificial than organic, and Cluj is neither this region’s natural nor its official “centre”. Nevertheless, the Agency for Northwestern regional development promotes Cluj as its most important city, its de facto center.

-the second in urban development dynamics (2). Cluj followed the general liberal development boost of Romanian cities in general, but comparing to its previous relative stagnation (between 1992-2004 Cluj has been the capital of Romanian ultranationalism), the urban development was perceived as a real boom after 2005. The shift from under-development to development was vividly felt. In terms of real estate development, Cluj is the second city in Romania now, a position that seemed to having been challenged during the 1990s.

(1) The population of Cluj was of 311.400 permanent residents in October 2007. With the floating population included, there were about 504.000 residents in the city.

(2) In the Top 15 chart published by the review “Capital” for the year Oct. 2006 - Sept. 2007, on the development dynamics of the first 15 cities in Romania, Cluj was the second, after Bucharest.

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Bucharest440 km

Timisoara329 km

Iasi 372 km

descending into Cluj on national road E60main arteries and town centers of Cluj-Napoca

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Grigorescu

Manastur

Zorilor

Gheorgheni

Marasti

perioada monarhiei 1867-1918, 1919-1945

urban green spaceestablished in the period

developments penetratinginto existing green spaces

pre-existingurban green space

dispersed greenestablished in the period

urban green spaceestablished in the period

developments penetratinginto existing green spaces

developments penetratinginto existing green spaces

pre-existingurban green space

dispersed greenestablished in the period

urban green spaceestablished in the period

opposite: comparing the medieval, the imperial, the communist and the contemporary city

Urban Development Over Different Periods

The city of Cluj-Napoca has experienced significant change to its demographic, economical, and thus urban charachteristics over different periods of its history. We identified the main eras as the medieval, the monarchy’s, the communist, and the post-revolution, contemporary city.

To understand the urban processes and the norms driving them we found it imporant to distinguish and compare these different periods and analyze how certain qualities have changed between them. It is also very telling to see how the way the city perceived and presented itself changed from period to another, mainly due to shifts in political ideology.

In this chapter we examine the evolution of the city’s political boundaries, its urban texture, major infrastructure, green open spaces, and ways the city has been introduced through postcard icons.

We claim that the fingerprint of each of the studied periods are clearly visible in the urban texture and infrastructure of today’s Cluj. It is also important to point out that all these solutions were very typical of their times, and always followed pragmatic or ideological norms.

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Informal Solutions as Society’s Response

With cities, like Cluj, that lack certain urban qualities or services, it is important to examine how society finds alternative ways to supersede these weaknesses. What is also to be noted is the rise of social awareness after the fall of communism. Poor services that people earlier accepted as given now don’t seem to meet their new standards. This be-comes a call for informal solutions, which is a city’s normal reaction to lack of qualities. Informal here has to be understood as society’s response to the formal not providing them with some of the wanted qualities. Informality is present on a national level too, it is estimated to be responsible for 10% of the country’s economy.

Two case studies represent the theme; one discusses public urban and inter-urban transportation and its supplementary informal methods, while the other looks at how the informal is spatially allocated within the city.

Our conclusion is that learning from and reclaiming the now informal sectors should be one of the city’s next steps towards urban development.

downtown zones not served by public transport informal taxi line stopsT

Urban Growth and Densification

The contemporary city faces a massive real estate development boom, with -interestingly enogh- the church and educational sectors playing a central role in the process.

We can identify two major categories of developments. One exceeds the current boundaries of the city, and we name it urban growth; while the other stays within the existing limits, and can be titled urban densification. We see the first category as mainly low density housing projects around the perimeters of Cluj, and the latter as towers with mixed use.

The densification process -besides building up wasteland- also causes the disappearance of part of the city’s public open and green spaces, thus restructuring the urban fabric.

Our critical research also covered the typological analysis of the housing sector’s densification, going from stand-alone, lower density houses, through building blocks, to ribbon houses.

new developments in and around the city

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garage converted into a hairdresser saloon, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

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Fragments of Rural Typologies in the Urban Tissue

A phenomenological theme present in Cluj is the traces of rural typologies within the urban fabric. We state that Cluj is a place where the rural meets the urban. It is important to see though how this is not exclusive to Cluj, many Eastern Europan cities of its size and structure share this quality. To put it with other words: it is normal to such cities.

We identified several locations within the city where the rural can be found either as fragmented zones with partly rural qualities -in the south- or as a somewhat continuous ‘rural belt’ in the north. The latter is a phenomenon made possible by the railways that act as barriors and leave the rural as a buffer zone between the purely urban fabric and the industrial land north of the tracks.

It is also important to see how the rural is adapted over time to meet urban standards both typologically and funcionally. The village house first is extended to reach the street, than becomes an L-shape, to form an urban streetfront. These buildings also witness a change of program, as they often become retail buildings for the surrounding newer residential areas.

rural fragments adjacent to concrete housing slabsexamples of rural typologies present in Cluj-Napoca rural zones isolated by industry

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Conclusion: Cluj is a Secondary City

The Romanian urban system is basically a “primate city system”: there is one city -the capital Bucharest- which is at least six times bigger than any other Romanian city. Cluj is on the second line in this system: it is a secondary city.

YET this secondary condition is not a one-of-a-kind condition. It is shared by a constel-lation of other 6-7 cities. Statistic figures actually slightly fluctuate from year to year, continually re-arranging the charts (1). Cluj is not always literally “THE second”, as its self-perception fancies.

So which is “the second” city in Romania in terms of absolute figures is irrelevant. Sheer growth is not worth considering in itself as a strategy. In order to be competitive, Cluj should develop a specific profile.

Facts and figure show that Cluj is already well situated in Romanian urban system as a University city: it is “the second”. Yet again, it shares this position with Iasi (2). But more important, the University is likely to give Cluj indeed a specific profile. The scale of the student population and of University related activities, compared to the city’s population and to other activities in the city, is what makes the University a pre-vailing presence inside the city and a considerable driving factor in the urban develop-ment. Bucharest has of course much more students than Cluj in absolute terms, but they make relatively much less difference for the city itself. In Cluj, one of five people is a student. Even before graduating, students are economically active (3). Most of them re-main in the city after graduation. It is a very mobile, but a very substantial social group. Student population is effectively upgrading the city. But figures show that sharply standing out in anything is not a realistic target. Being “secondary” also implies being a medium / normal city, similar to several others. Normality is something always shared.

(1) In population, Iasi (320.888 inhabitants) definitely surpassed Cluj in the 2002 census, and Timisoara (317.660) or Constanta (310.471) ranged pretty close (but have surpassed Cluj in the previous 1992 census).

(2) In 2005-2006, Cluj was the second in student population (253247 in Bucharest, 65691 in Cluj, 60686 in Iasi) and the third in number of higher education institutions (34 in Bucharest, 11 in Iasi, 10 in Cluj); source INS 2005.

(3) Students established 1.157 new firms in Cluj between 2003 and 2007, with a total turnover of 17,7 mil. lei (about 5,5 mil. euro). In students’ business, Cluj is also the second in Romania, but Bucharest, topping the list, has only 1.217 student firms.

downtown Cluj framed by recent middle-class housing developments

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New Identites and Development Guidelines for Cluj

1. Cluj as a City of Arts and Education

Cluj is a multi-cultural city with flourishing art and education sectors. The situation of universities seems to be more resolved though, as they are constantly expanding their campuses, and are involved in other real estate investments too.

Places for arts don’t seem to be provided in sufficient quantity and even the one that are out there are not visible enough. The art scene in general is fragmented and not noticable as much as it should be and it should deserve to be. Informality is present here too, as many artists present their works in their own studios, or in bars and cafes.

Our proposals consist of introducing a network of places presenting arts, both on a theoretical, and on a physical level, and providing new spaces for arts by transforming abandoned buildings of the city.

2. Cluj as a City that Reclaims its Informal Sector

We identified formalizing the currently informal services as one of the main goals for today’s city. It is very important because the informal comes about to fill gaps in the of-fered services but can never provide the level of quality its formal equivalent could.

We highlighted the need to upgrade the public transportation system, but -as not being professionals of the subject- we don’t go any deeper in that matter. We rather discuss another topic, the one of enhancing concrete housing neighborhoods’ qualities, and the services offered there. This we find crucial as we learned from our research that the level of formal services is the lowest and thus the presence of informality the highest in such districts of the city.

We provide proposals for two main issues:

2.1.) remodelling the linear centers of these neighborhoods through altering the ground floors of the concrete blocks and thus adding urban qualities to where they meet the avenues; and

2.2.) solving the currently ambiguous ‘backyard conditions’ within these areas via upgrading the typologies used.

3. Cluj as a City of Public Green Open Spaces

Our analysis highlighted the fact that recently basically no urban green spaces have been introduced to the city. On the contrary: new developments even intrude the existing green zones, while other European cities rather use their brown zones to deploy new projects. According to the city administration (*) Cluj has a green surface per inhabitant ratio of only 7.18 sqm/person, while the national urban average is at 15 sqm/person, and the ratio required by current law is 17-26 sqm/person.

Offering new green zones is inescapable. Our concept has two main components:

3.1.) creating a new large scale green space by rehabilitating the rust-zone along the railroad; and

3.2.) connecting existing and planned green spaces and thus creating a continuous green belt consisting of different typologies ranging from urban parks, through green avenues, to green fragments inserted into the urban fabric. The new park on formerly industrial land would introduce a scale of green space unseen in Cluj. It would be a space where different kinds of open air activities and themes would find their place. The green chain is planned partly along the river, hoping to make the city face its water rather than turning its back to it.

(*) the Project of Strategic Planning in 2005 can be found on the City’s web site: www.primariaclujnapoca.ro/proiect_planificare.aspx

proposed new green belt new urban park along the railway

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exhibit opening in Galeria Plan B, Cluj-Napoca exhibit opening in Galeria Plan B, Cluj-Napoca

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Credits

All content is copyrighted by Daniel Kiss except texts on pages 9 and 21 that are copyrighted by Dana Vais.

All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means without the written permission of the author.

Participating Students:

Andreea SzondiAdrian PopAlexandra FleseriuAlexandra SuciuAlexandra TimpauAlice OpricaBogdan HaiduClaudia CioncanDóra BenedekEszter PéterIoana VanceaJózsef Szilágyi BarthaKrisztina MátéLászló CzilliMargit FornvaldMarius BuceaMihai RacuMihai VonicaMonica BocanOana PopescuSmaranda SpanuZsófia HlavathyRaluca SabauOrsolya GálVlad MarinescuZsuzsanna Buda

© 2008