Urban Thinking Festival – Brașov 2018. First Festival of Urban Reflection in Romania

Events

text: Matei COCHECI, Gabriel PASCARIU, Natalia ONESCIUC, Miruna DRĂGHIA

From 25 August to 1 September 2018, the Professional Association of Urban Planners in Romania (APUR), together with Urbasofia SRL and the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) - Romania, organized in Brasov the first edition of an Urban Thinking Festival, basically a form of summer school that would be repeated annually, in Brasov or in other cities in Romania and maybe abroad.
In the context created by the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the theme of the festival was Intelligent Planning for Cultural Heritage, a thematic umbrella that brought together young professionals (urban planners, architects, geographers) under 35 years of age from Romania, Italy, Switzerland, Albania and the Netherlands, who participated, throughout the festival, in various activities proposed by the organizers and detailed below.

After an evening of settling in and initial contacts, during which the participants got to know each other and began to share their experiences of urban planning processes in their countries of origin, a study visit to the historic area of Brasov followed, coordinated by architect Razvan Dracea, president of the Romanian Order of Architects, Brasov-Covasna-Harghita branch), with the participation of urban planners Raluca Baco and Cătălin Pricope from the Urban Planning Department of the City Hall of Brasov, which provided a good opportunity to discuss the city hall's plans for urban planning in the historic area.

© Miruna Drăghia

The next two days of the festival were dedicated to the Summer School courses themselves, given by international experts, on the following framework themes: 1. Public Spaces (Dhiru THADANI, USA); 2. Urban Regeneration and Conservation (Valentina GIANFRATE and Giovanni GINOCCHINI, Italy); 3. Cultural Heritage and Smart Cities (Roland van der HEIJDEN; The Netherlands and Manfred SCHRENK, Austria); 4. Sustainable development (Izabela MIRONOWICZ, Poland) and urban governance (Pietro ELISEI, Italy/Romania). 1-2 short expert lectures followed by workshops took place each day. The last day had a concluding, synthetic character, during which the final presentations of the trainees were held in the Council Hall of the City Hall of Brasov.

Throughout the event, the participants worked in 3 interdisciplinary teams, each focusing on an area in the historical area of the municipality of Brasov, as follows:
- team 1 focused on the study of the relationship between the citadel and the city, paying special attention to the articulation of the different public spaces existing and proposed to be rehabilitated in this part of the city: the Nicolae Titulescu Park, the theater, the agri-food market, the STAR store;
- team 2 studied the area of the Brașov Fortress;
- team 3 analyzed the potential for valorization of the cultural heritage of the Șcheii Brașov.

At the end of the festival, for each studied area, the teams presented a development vision based on 3-5 strategic objectives, possible interventions (hard and soft) aiming at valorizing the cultural heritage of the historical area of Brasov, strategic concepts of valorization and illustrations of best practice models from different European cities that could be applied to the municipality of Brasov. In this process, the participants considered principles and umbrella ideas such as the role of public spaces in urban regeneration, the relationship between urban image and urban branding, innovative methods of heritage valorization in the digital age, principles of sustainable development and urban governance pacts.

© Monica Pătrăășcoiu

In order to provide as many viable topics of debate as possible on cultural heritage and its various aspects that concern the local community of specialists, public events were organized in the second part of the working days, aimed at encouraging professional dialogue on various topics of interest:

*Round table "Public Spaces and Urban Regeneration in Romania" (August 27) - moderator Pietro Elisei (Urbasofia director), guests: DhiruThadani (ISOCARP); Șerban Țigănaș (Secretary General International Union of Architects); Raluca Baco (Direction of Urbanism, City Hall of Brasov); Cătălin Frangulea-Pastor (Metropolitan Agency for Sustainable Development Brasov); Matei Cocheci (Vice President APUR). The main points of the discussion were the role of technology in urban regeneration processes and the key elements that urban planners should consider when planning urban regeneration processes.
*Study visitto Coresi Business Park and screening of the documentary Planeta Petrila at Sala Patria in Brașov (August 28) - offering different perspectives on how to valorize industrial heritage.
*Round table "Cultural heritage in Romania in the digital era" (August 29) - moderator Sabina Leopa (Urbasofia European projects manager), guests: Roland van der Heijden (Rotterdam Digital City); Manfred Schrenk (CORP director); Pietro Elisei (Urbasofia director); Ionuț Țața (ALT Brasov cluster); Sorin Pop (INDECO Soft) and Oana Rujan (Aries Transilvania Cluster). The dialogue focused on how cultural heritage can be valorized and maintained with the help of new technologies: visual effects, web and mobile applications, sensors for monitoring various parameters.
*Round table "Smart planning for cultural heritage in Brasov - towards a manifesto" - moderator Irina Florea-Saghin (ISOCARP; "Ovidius" University of Constanta), guests: Izabela Mironowicz (Wroclaw University of Sciences); Gabriel Pascariu (APUR president); Pietro Elisei (Urbasofia director); Ștefan Bâlici (director of the National Heritage Institute), Kollo Miklos and Silvia Demeter Lowe (Romanian Order of Architects); Bogdan Micu (City Hall of Brasov). After a short presentation of the results of the summer school realized by the participants of the three working teams, the guests commented on the ideas presented, bringing up other problems of Brasov that may affect the cultural heritage in the future, such as traffic and pollution.

Finally, the discussions on the crystallization of an urban reflection manifesto focused on the need to open a wider dialogue about the city, which should become a broad topic of debate not only for local public authorities and professionals, but also for local communities.

The success of this year's events was largely due to the festival's partners, without whose support the event could not have become a reality. Among these partners and sponsors were the City Hall of Brasov, the Metropolitan Agency for Sustainable Development Brasov, the Romanian Register of Urban Planners, the Romanian Union of Architects, Transilvania University or Arhitectura Magazine.

The organizers are determined to repeat the experience of the Urban Reflection Festival next year, on a different theme and with other international experts invited to coordinate workshops and to give lectures for the general public. The Festival thus aims to increase the share of events dedicated to the public in order to encourage the widest possible participation of local actors (community, professionals, administration) in the debate on how the future of cities should be thought.

SUMMARY OF THE MAGAZINE ARHITECTURA, NR.6/2018
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