First Inventory of Historic Areas in Bucharest

Autor: Andreea Marinaș | Publicat pe: 07 Martie 2017, 12:13

On March 11, ARCEN launches “Bucharest Catalogue”, an action aimed to collect thousands of data in order to create the first inventory of all buildings constructed in Bucharest historic areas. The inventory will be conducted over March 2017 - November 2020, by volunteers and experts in architecture, and also by planners and historians, and will target the 98 protected construction areas of the capital city.

By Magdalena Popa Buluc

At the moment, Bucharest architectural heritage is in an advanced state of decay, hundreds of buildings are in a state of collapse or pre-collapse and represent real public dangers. The buildings in the protected areas of the capital city are facing demolition, serious deterioration or mutilations. Most interventions lead to irreversible losses brought to the city's identity and to the cultural landscape. As for the protected areas, there is no centralized database regarding the state of the buildings and of the assaults against the constructed heritage. The specific of the historic areas is altered, the quality of urban life decreases and the old town is overcrowded by the appearance of the "blocks of houses". Urban regulations of protected areas are often violated, so that their revitalization of the historic areas in Bucharest and the increase of the economic attractiveness are becoming an impossibility.

Through "Bucharest Catalogue", ARCEN will provide with analyzes and statistics state institutions, experts in the field and the residents of an online platform comprising the inventory of all buildings of the 98 protected areas, tens of thousands of data and photographs respectively. The protected areas inventory, conducted between 2017 and 2020, could become a useful tool for bureaucratic procedures within specialized commissions. "Bucharest Catalogue" will draw attention on the errors found in the List of Historical Monuments, will prompt the need of other valuable property dismissal and could become the foundation for improving the related legislation and the Bucharest protected areas regulations, so they favor the harmonious development of the urban landscape and the public space quality increase.

In parallel, ARCEN will organize between 2017 and 2020 a series of conferences and public debates for presenting and interpreting the data gathered on the field, prioritizing the emergencies of the historic city and their solving. "Bucharest Catalogue" will be both a tool aimed at educating city residents and an initiative to enable protected areas as micro-communities within the city who can work together with experts and public authorities for the rescue of urban and cultural landscape, by stopping assaults and by preservating the historic Bucharest specifics.