Quality neighborhoods in big developments - it can be done!

In 2009, in addition to completing my PhD ^thesis1, I was part of a consultancy team working on a Methodology for Improving the Quality of Public Spaces in Large Developments. It was an applied research study commissioned by the Ministry of Regional Development, which at that time was called the Ministry of Regional Development and Housing. I worked as a representative of ATU - the Association for Urban Transition, together with GEA - the Group for Applied Economics, and the consortium was coordinated by Space Syntax London. Thus, we had a team composition that allowed for an interdisciplinary approach and ensured an international perspective, as well as a nuanced understanding of the realities of the large Romanian urban areas.

Some of the challenges of this study are as much food for thought in order to make the quality of the neighborhoods in large housing estates: defining the specificities of large housing estates, analyzing international practices on interventions to improve the quality of housing in large housing estates, identifying indicators and methods for analyzing the public space in large housing estates, identifying a typology of common problems and possible intervention methods, presenting the responsibilities of residents and local public authorities, and identifying funding instruments and schemes.

The methodology was handed over to the ministry and was appreciated. Unfortunately, over the last 5 years, the public policy priorities at the central level do not even include meeting the housing needs, so there are no central budget resources for the improvement of public spaces in large estates. There has therefore been no possible government funding program to encourage local public authorities to address these issues. I believe that this report can be seen as a call for optimism about the future of places that are rather pessimistic. I think it is necessary to mobilize professionals to get involved in the preparation of projects for interventions at the scale of neighborhoods that make up a large (...) (...)

Read the full text in the double issue 4-5 / 2014 of Arhitectura magazine

photo: Vera Marin

Note:

1 Housing policies - improving collective housing in large housing estates in Bucharest, PhD thesis defended in May 2009 at the University of Architecture and Urbanism "Ion Mincu", Bucharest.