www.urbact.eu

URBACT II Programme

Kick-off MeetingWorking Group – NODUS

Alba Iulia & urban regeneration

Moldovan NICOLAIEBarcelona, 17/06/2008

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Europe, Romania, Centre Development region, Alba County, Alba Iulia

Alba Iulia, Vauban Citadel

Local context• Official name: Alba Iulia;  • Other names: Apulon, Apulum, Balgrad, Alba Transilvana,

Weissenburg, Karlsburg, Gyulafehervar;• It is a city defined of national importance by law;• Alba Iulia is the spiritual capital of Romania and Romanians;• A city with 5000 years of vivid and tumultuous history;• A city with a lot of cultural, historic and anthropic heritage;• Alba Iulia is a medium sized level growing urban pole, that

concentrates the economic, social, cultural and of more than 100 000 inhabitants (including the rural areas that have a polycentric development surrounding Alba Iulia Municipality);

• It is the capital of Alba County, 7 Centre Development Region.

Local context• 10365 ha;• Over 27000 housings; 97% private properties;• Economically, it prevails light industry, food industry,

manufactures, real estate services, etc;• 3.5 % unemployment rate;• Very closed to Sibiu &Cluj Napoca International Airport; • It is crossed and near by 2 European major transport routs (E81 &

PAN IV European Corridor); • It is also a gateway to the spectacular Apuseni Mountains to the

west.  Alba Iulia and the surrounding region are mainly based on agriculture and mining, wine and porcelain industries.

• 1 elected mayor – 4 years mandate & 2 vice mayors- executive power; 21 elected local councilors – legislative power.

Our strategy….in regenerating the city

• Alba Iulia – city of fortress

• Alba Iulia – city of competitive and value added investments

• Alba Iulia – city of citizens

Strategic context

• Vauban fortress – educational, social, cultural and touristical pole of development for mid and long term.

• The city life is intrinsically connected with the fortress; it is the heart of Alba iulia urban life.

Vauban Fortress

• The Alba Carolina fortress was built between 1714 and 1738 and it is considered to be the most representative of Vauban type in Europe.

• The fortress was designed by the Italian architect Giovanni Morando Visconti, who worked under the supervision of the general Stefan de Steinville and was later completed under General Weiss. Between the 18th and 19th centuries the fortress served as the military headquarters of Transylvania and also as a general armament repository. The perimeter of the outside walls is about 12 km. The fortification has seven bastions that make it into a star-shaped, Vauban-style fortress. The largest bastion is the Trinity. On the whole, the fortress stands out as the most important baroque architectural ensemble in Romania and Europe.

We have a citadel….

• Till 7 years ago the major part of the fortress was occupied by the Ministry of Defense for military units…

• What is to be done….?

Urban planing

• The fundamental issue of the last 18 years in ROMANIA – THE REVITALISATION OF OLD URBAN CENTERS – requires the finding of methodology elements and of global approaches for them, and, therefore each city could contribute to this.

• Alba Iulia Citadel and City become a capital of knowledge and

methods that allow a reflection on the urban (regeneration) practices.

Urban planing

• The evolution of the «heritage protection» concept has also been made in the case of  ALBA IULIA City from particular to global, starting with the protection of the buildings, building ensembles (from which the Citadel is part of), the districts and of the city itself.

• The development in time of the city tends to erase many of the «marks» of the previous ages, and their reading is not always accessible to its inhabitants. The protection of the urban heritage and also its future development implies the studying of the existing forms, visible or hidden or lost, but which by accumulation and joining had created the CITY.

Urban planing

• A clear urban image represents for the city’s inhabitants and for the local communities a re-discovery of the bench marks of the «urban landscape», the affiliation to a space with historical and cultural identity which can socially favor the balance and the integration feeling of some populations with different cultural origins.

• The relation to old terrestrial or river Mureş communication ways of the small settlements adjacent to the main settlement allow the connection of the CITADEL/CITY to the routes and communication means and with the topography or hydrography of the site.

Urban planing

• The urban analysis becomes a step with an obvious scientific character both on economic and also on social or cultural plan:

• Which is the influence of the site on the turning up and then on the urban development?

• How can we analyze what the initial urban nuclei represented and the impact on the today’s city?

• How can we re-encounter the axes and the routes of the past in the texture of some streets within the ongoing change, and especially, how can we distinguish the secondary elements from the fundamental permanent components of the urban space?

Urban planing

• The observation system of the city’s features is the first step necessary to implement the type of analyses that precede the protection, preservation, restoration and rehabilitation actions of a central historical urban area. The following analyses are important:

• 1. The report site – urban settlement;• 2. The land – a testimony of the development (with a special attention

paid to the archaeology) but also of the relief, of the natural and built routes;

• 3. The defining and the study of the urban shapes (free and built spaces, the perception elements of different elements – streets and buildings);

• 4. Building typology and public and private spaces;• 5. The evolution of the street textures.

First steps towards urban regeneration

• The Project MILENIUM – or the integration of the Alba Iulia Citadel within the European Circuit

• Having a long period in which studies and research projects for the citadel’s heritage have been drawn up, the next important step in recognizing the European value of the Citadel of Vauban type was its integration within the ITINERARIES OF MILITARY FORTIFIED ARCHITECTURES OF VAUBAN TYPE which includes fortresses from the Western, Central and the Eastern Europe, Alba Iulia Citadel being the eastern one and well preserved from this geographical area.

First steps towards urban regeneration

• The Program was launched in Alba Iulia on February 1999, in the presence of the Director of the EUROPEAN INSTITUTE FOR CULTURAL ITINERARIES OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL, Mr. MICHEL THOMAS PENETTE, of the local authorities and of the specialists.

• Within the campaign of the European Council: "EUROPE, A COMMON HERITAGE", a transnational project, the Ministry of Culture, the National Service for Sites and Historical Monuments of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg chose, due to the importance of the presented projects, Alba Iulia, to collaborate for the development of the cultural itinerary.

First steps towards urban regeneration

• Presently, only a part of the Vauban Circuit from Alba Iulia, stage 1, is used and offered to the Tourist Circuit through the development of arranging works, placing information panels.

• THE ITINERARY INCLUDES MAJOR OBJECTIVES OF CITADEL-CITY- see fotos

First steps towards urban regeneration

• The opening of a new cultural itinerary “THE ITINERARY OF THE THREE FORTIFICATIONS” financed by the United Nations Development Programme within the project “BEAUTIFUL ROMANIA” was another major step. A unique tourist destination in Europe and the world, the Route of the Three Fortifications offers the visitors a life-time chance to travel 2,000 years back in time, walking about the vestiges of three fortifications belonging to three different historical epochs, successively built on the same location, each new citadel including the previous one: The Roman Castre (106 AD), The Medieval Citadel (sec. XVI-XVII) and the Alba Carolina Citadel, a Vauban-type fortification (sec. XVIII).  The route includes visits to: The Minting Factory Gate, South Gate of the Roman Castre, The Military Camp, The Access Tunnel to the Artillery Platform, The Artillery Platform, The Guard Room - The Arms Room, The Bethlem Bastion and the Alba Carolina Citadel.

First steps towards urban regeneration

• The Citadel maintains, besides the historical and architectural values, also, planning values which are represented by fragments of urban array (street texture, lots, etc.) and elements of major urban operations from successive historical ages.

• The area includes the most part of the sites, the monuments and the ensembles enlisted in the Historical Monuments of the Alba Iulia Municipality, and outstanding elements for cultural, education, health and worship grounds, and also military buildings and housing. The value of the area consists of the coherence of the built area, its perimeter offering a pedestrian itinerary that includes different historical periods whose succession and capitalization confer uniqueness and diversity.

First steps towards urban regeneration

• The Zonal Planning and the relevant Regulation have as general objective the facility of an integrated urban development process by maintaining the historical character and the identity of the Citadel, and through spatial re-conversion proposals of the free buildings and spaces.

• At the basis of the documentation’s provisions was the general intervention principal of using the city’s land and buildings for outstanding functions simultaneously with capitalization of both the historical zone as well as of the buildings with historic monument value.

First steps towards urban regeneration

• The provisions of the Regulation comply with ALBA IULIA HISTORICAL CENTER made of 3 areas defined by the analysis of planning organization and conventionally named

• THE CENTRAL AREA OF THE CITADEL

• THE ADJACENT AREA TO THE CENTRAL AREA (INNER’S CITADEL)

• AREAS ADJACENT TO THE CITADEL (OUTER’S CITADEL) and 8 sub-zone.

• Will the landscape include new concepts and interventions in the approach towards the CITY? As in the case of the heritage, the connection between elements, the created or existing context that must be preserved, is far more important than the singular items – THE TITANIC CASE.

• The capitalization of the landscape has the capacity of connecting different actors involved in the development of the site so that the different point of view are useful to the ensemble and to exist a dialogue within the global dynamics of the project in order to determine which are the elements that will bring changes.

Other step…

• FEDR Fund• Romanian Regional Operational Programe• Prioritary Axis 5• On 7 of April 2007, a project for 12.5 milions euro was submitted by

local administration – a big TV box; the first and the only one from our region till now;

• It was prepared for 1,5 years, and cost almost 400000 euro; 350 000 were paid by National Government.

• We use internal and external experts – such as IHS Roterdam, Urbact, Human Dynamics, etc.

• The financial and tehnico-economic studies were conducted by a National Projecting Institute

Citizens and urban regeneration

• We decide to really involve citizens in urban regeneration process regarding the fortress…

How? Methodology

• As a result of its studies conducted between 2007 and 2008, by Alba Iulia Council and the Alba Iulia Public University we consider the inhabitants’ options when deciding the ways in which the Vauban-style Citadel can be regenerated.

• Stages that have been completed:

• a) discussion panels with young architects that identified the main ideas which could be developed within the historical Citadel site (the project was designed as a summer camp for young urban planners and was not organized by the University);

• b) experts at the University identified the possible regeneration directions of the Citadel and defined a sociological framework of investigating the inhabitants’ options;

Methodology

• c) the opinions of inhabitants interested in the issue of regeneration were gathered (among other methods, a questionnaire with more than 400 questions was used for more than 1200 people);

• d) opinions were processed and conclusions to the sociological

study were drawn;

• e) a marketing study was carried out for the first urban

regeneration project, to be funded through national or European schemes;

Methodology

• f) three urban regeneration project ideas were defined, based on the following marketing concepts: ‘The forbidden Citadel. The rediscovered Citadel’, ‘The open Citadel and ‘Capital of fortifications’;

• g) an integrative project has been outlined for urban regeneration

efforts, designed as a type of ‘Citadel Governance’ and the idea was discussed with the citizens, experts and the local administration. The return of results method was used when outlining the integrative project.

Methodology

• Now at the stage of the integrative project, the University’s involvement in the Citadel regeneration project has lead to a solution meant to overcome difficulties in making opinions, interests and expertise compatible.

• Placed in the heart of the Citadel and with extensive material resources, the University can be the engine of urban development and the catalyst of local governance efforts.

• Besides its educational mission, the University is about to embark on a mission of urban regeneration which includes the citizens’ opinions and interests.

Key outputs of the project

• Over 6.5 km of functionally reconverted and modernize roads for small scale traffic and pedestrians with natural stones – granites, andesitic, marble, etc.

• Over 1,7 km of sewerage collectors rehabilitated; • Public and architectural lightning of the inside walls of the

fortifications;• 3,6 ha of green spaces;• Urban furniture;• Over 200 new working places for people outside the citadel/city;• Economical development at local and regional level;• Increasing the number of tourists.

Our Aim in NODUS

• To learn:

• how to manage the urban regeneration policies, especially in historic sites;

• how to mentally regenerate a city and citizens attitudes towards city life;

• how to integrate social approach and inclusion policy in the physical regeneration of the cities;

• how is organized and functional the concept and putted into practice by partners.

• Local action plan – The governance of the citadel

• Lack of professionals in urban planning and urban regeneration/neighborhood management;

• Public/private properties issues;

• Lack of a GIS system;

Thank you for your attention

Nicolaie MOLDOVAN

Project Manager Alba Iulia Local Councilnmoldovan@apulum.ro

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