2793 - Garden of dreams

2,793 days.

That's how long the project to rehabilitate the Theresia Bastion in Timișoara took.

A team of 46 professionals from 13 offices sought solutions for a relationship between the public space and the nationally listed historic monument.

The present volume opens the scepter in which unpublished information and data about the intervention on the Theresia Bastion (listed as historical monument at position 68, TM-II-a-A-06103, position 69, TM-II-m-A-06103.03, position 86, TM-II-m-A-06103.02, position 91, TM-II-m-A-06103.01) in the period 2003-2011 were stored.

In the collective imaginary, Theresia Bastion is perceived as an important space of Timișoara, closely linked to the Austrian influence on the city's architecture and, implicitly, on its history, all the more so as it is the last part of the Vauban defense system, consisting of nine such bastions, finalized as a defense mechanism around 1730. The lack of information on the interventions on the monument between 1969 and 1970 was the fundamental determinant, and this obviously led to detailed research on these interventions - both structural and surface. The minimal documentation of what was accomplished during these eight years, from the design phase to the execution phase (even if not all the work was completed), is another important aspect of the publication of this volume. A few critical positions will perhaps highlight the possible improvement of the approach to monuments in particular. Last but not least, the often erroneous presentation in the local media or the inappropriate use of public spaces prompted the project team to bury these few landmarks between the covers of handmade paper... Most of the materials presented were taken, for authenticity, directly from the project phases submitted to the authorities. Notes, inscriptions, scanned sketches or photographs from the site will introduce the reader to the apparently abstract and complicated universe of the project. The texts written by the project participants have been inserted in association with sets of images, sketches and analyses carried out at various stages.

The work, in addition to tracing the thread of events, from the winning of the national competition of ideas in 2003 to the finalization of the site in 2012, critically deals with issues such as the implementation of EU funding contracts, the "attention" of the administration to public space in Romania and, last but not least, the poor relationship of Romanians (Timisoara's inhabitants) to this space.

Why don't we know how to use it?.... remains an open question.

Authors:

Marius Miclăuș, Ștefan Ghenciulescu, Corina Ilin, Cristian Blidariu, Ileana Kisilewicz, Anca Luca, Simina Stan Publisher:

Archaeus Foundation 2014