Cluj-Napoca is the fourth-most populous city in Romania. Geographically, it is roughly the same distance to Bucharest, Budapest and Belgrade. Located in the Someșul Mic river valley, the city is considered the unofficial capital of the historical province of Transylvania. The metropolitan area has a population exceeding 400,000 residents.
Cluj-Napoca has a number of landmark buildings and monuments, such as the Saint Michael’s Church in Unirii Square, the the Palace of Justice, built between 1898 and 1902, the Iuliu Maniu Street, featuring symmetrical buildings on either side, as well as the National Museum of Transylvanian History, the Ethnographic Museum, and the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum.
Cluj-Napoca and the surrounding metropolitan area is economically effervescent. According to statistics, Cluj-Napoca has had the most dynamic economic evolution in from Romania in the last decade, with multiple contributing factors, including market diversity and the expertise of it’s workforce. A Low unemployment rate contributes towards it’s success with 2% at the county level, according to statistics,
The central element of the development strategy of Cluj-Napoca for the last period was the quality of life of the citizens. The new development strategy aims to calibrate and synchronize all those involved into the day-to-day life of the city. This integrated strategy will define the development of Cluj-Napoca in all areas until 2030 – aligned with other European and national strategies and objectives.
Related to this topic, Cluj-Napoca has been confronting an important issue – many vacant and abandoned industrial sites and buildings still exist. As a response to this problem, they began implementing temporary use interventions and encouraging new activities on these lands to test community response toward this initiative. Such initiatives and projects were very successful, resulting in a demand by the community to be more involved in codesigning public space, rebuilding and adapting public spaces to their own necessities.
The area is very atypical for Cluj-Napoca. Currently facing rapid growth, it is home to a demographic change – lots of young families and people are moving to the neighborhood because of its proximity to the main services.
The urban community fabric is complex and presents big contrasts: old generation vs. young generation; the presence of new residential buildings offers more opportunities for new families, yet there there is a lack of leisure activities.
Old residential areas in the western part of the district (initial population from the 19th century) and new residential areas in the northern parts of the district (developed over the last 15 years). Constant renewal of
the population.
The Someș River and smaller affluent and green corridors represent a strength of the neighborhood. The low density residential neighborhood has large gardens cared for by their owners.
The new park of the youth, „The Forest of Clujians” is an attractive new facility and green reserve. However, Not all the green areas are cared for – some represent a barrier between fragments of the neighborhood.
Parks are scarce in the residential neighborhood, and almost non-existing in collective housing developments. There is no unitary treatment of the green front of the main boulevard, Bulevardul Muncii.
Adapting the green fronts of the boulevard to its condition as a main traffic artery of the town and district and making use of green spaces around schools and churches in order to enhance a better usage and distribution of public/ semi-public green spaces would serve as a worthwhile solution.
There have been several investments in the area regarding the creation of a park in the eastern area of the district (almost finalised), the refurbishment of the Someș River banks, the refurbishment of the area around the district branch of the city hall (under debate).
The plans for the re-appropriation of the former industrial area adjacent to the Someș River is assumed as a long term process. Existing schools and kindergartens are well distributed throughout the neighborhood, especially its eastern, traditionally residential part. An important pole of education is one of the branches of the Technical university of Cluj-Napoca, locatedon the Bulevardul Muncii.
Diverse economic sectors flourishing around Tetarom II – a recent industrial park – service providers such as Emerson absorb workforce from all over the city. There are also manufacturers and smaller private industries as well as small size commerce. Auchan is the local retailer and covers more than the Iris neighborhood.
The neighborhood’s potential, as it was designed in the socialist era, still stands. The presence of the Technical University (Faculty
of Mechanics) and the industrial parks (the recent one, developed after 2000, offering telecommunication services – and the socialist one, mostly deserted) represent a strong opportunity for the development of economic activities. The possibility to absorb the work force and the reinvention of the profile of the area represent unique opportunities in the city.
There are old residential areas in the western part of the district (initial population from the 19th century) and new residential areas in the northern parts of the district (developed over the last 15 years). Constant renewal of the population represents a strength at the district level. Segregation of residential areas and types of residents and the existence of areas with poor residential quality and social and ethnic segregation represent a weakness of the district. While the continual segregation between poor and rich residents is a threat at demographic level, there is certainly the opportunity of strengthening cohesion at district level and growing its population. A special concern is the disparity between residential areas in terms of urban space quality.
There are two buildings protected for their historical value in the district: The VI Reformed Church Iris (105, Oașului str) – built in 1950, „Buna Vestire” Orthodox Church (2, Puieților str.) – built in 1934. The two churches are not connected or open to tourists. The socialist (mostly industrial) heritage is not evaluated. Creation of new responsible cultural heritage in an urban environment that lacks and needs such developments is an objective. Assessment of the socialist heritage of the district, both residential (working class housing) and industrial is vital.
Local communities are not vocal enough or present enough in appropriating their town areas. Therefore, one of the scopes of the agenda is to establish a ground where they can express themselves and find a voice.
Given the lack of leisure and public space in the Iris district, the AGORA project set out to build the foundation for the creation of a multi-functional community and youth center.
The main criteria were:
Livability through innovation,
Activating the neighborhood, and imagining a future.
The goal would be to connect the riverfront with the park creating a space where people from any background will be able to use the public space.
A building facing a public square will be the center of the change for the neighborhood. The building will be used as a “decentralised” CIIC (Center for innovation and civic imagination), which in the future could gather information and consent to build informative neighborhood plans – with neighborhood forums.
The pilot project is a pre feasibility study of the location in the City Hall’s property, situated on the ground floor of a building in Karl Liebcknecht square. This study will focus on the transformation of this space into a multi-functional public facility destined for public debate, meetings of the residents of the neighborhood, social service, exhibitions and other kinds of events. It can be open to all sorts of users under the administration of the City Hall.
The objective is to create a space where public debate and social life and identity at neighborhood level can be nurtured.
This pilot project was chosen for several reasons. First, the space is already in a good estate, in clear property terms and has the benefit of an ongoing refurbishment of the square on which it is situated. Secondly, it is well positioned in the neighborhood, next to the local City Hall, the orthodox church and one of the tram stations. Thirdly, on a more profound level, we believe it can fulfill the objective of the regeneration agenda: create a fertile ground for the beginning of a sense of appropriation in the neighborhood, for gaining a sense of identity for its residents, for the interaction between stakeholders at city level.
The regeneration project includes holistic renovation and refurbishment of the building for artistic purposes, based on an international architecture competition. Within this regeneration process, AGORA aims to bring a new culture of participation in culture and cultural governance. The goal of the project is to give the space a strong meaning for its surroundings, integrating it with its adjacent environment – the park, the river and the residential area and its citizens
The vision of the Regeneration Agenda for the Iris neighborhood is to create a fertile ground for a more lively, publicly active, beautiful and appropriated district within the municipality of Cluj-Napoca. This vision is in accordance with the areas identified in the `Operational Analysis`, areas that can be ultimately activated in the process started by the Regeneration Agenda.
Considering the analysis on the Iris district, there is a definite need for an improvement of use where public space is concerned. Also, the demographic and environmental characteristics of the neighborhood are problematic, when compared to the rest of the city. The Regeneration Agenda means to use the thematic cluster of unused or underused public spaces in order to accomplish the vision of the municipality regarding a more integrated, socially viable and lively city, in all its neighborhoods. The marginalized position of the Iris district is meant to change gradually, at a pace dictated by its present and future residents and visitors.
There were several attempts to find the best decision making process for the project. Ultimately, the big decisions will be taken by the Cluj-Napoca city hall and the local council, but at project level, common ground was found relatively quickly. It was nice to find stakeholders who did not need training for creating a good workflow, it somehow came naturally. The workshops have been clearly one of the highlights of the project, since they created the perfect context for co-generating and co-designing ideas and transferring them into deliverables.
The project managed to ensure participation in a challenging neighborhood, and brought the focus of urban development from the city center and into the neighborhoods surrounding the city.
The COVID Challenge and a flourishing new community There were several things that could be improved, especially from the communication point of view. During COVID, it was hard to reach all the objectives of the foreseen activites and lots of adaptations should have been made în order to prove succesful. Adapting to the new context did not always go hand în had with the requirements of the project. A success has been the creation of the AGORA community. There is a core of experts and NGOs that were present to all of the activities coordinated by the Lead Partner and they have been involved trough the entire co-design process. In our opinion as external experts this is the most succesful aspect of the implemetnation process. |
Local Development Director of Cluj-Napoca, Ovidio Cimpean, discusses the participatory approach of the AGORA project, the involvement of local actors and how this will impact future approaches in the IRIS district.
The project did help create synergies and promote mutual collaboration between various stakeholders, including the following:
municipal departments
The project is coordinated în Cluj-Napoca by the municipality, they hired us aș external experts în order to help them with the co-design part of the project. The communication was ok, however there has been sometimes a long process of decision making between each step of the project.
other public institutions
There has been a very good collaboration with the organization that handles the Metropolitan Area of Cluj, they have brought very itneresting information to the table. Their perspective was different to that of the municipality so there was a little challenge to find the common ground.
local SMEs
It was hard to attract SMEs to the table of discussions.
local NGOs
NGOs have been extremly valuable throughout the co-design and co-generation phase of the AGORA project. Their input was the most important from all the involved stakeholders, especially because they had previous experiences în the studied areas. Most of the involved NGOs have activated areas previously, which helped both us and them în the design process of the urban regeneration agenda.
In this interview we discuss the importance of participatory approaches in designing and creating public space and services.
The project did help create synergies and promote mutual collaboration between various stakeholders, including the following:
municipal departments
The project is coordinated în Cluj-Napoca by the municipality, they hired us aș external experts în order to help them with the co-design part of the project. The communication was ok, however there has been sometimes a long process of decision making between each step of the project.
other public institutions
There has been a very good collaboration with the organization that handles the Metropolitan Area of Cluj, they have brought very itneresting information to the table. Their perspective was different to that of the municipality so there was a little challenge to find the common ground.
local SMEs
It was hard to attract SMEs to the table of discussions.
local NGOs
NGOs have been extremly valuable throughout the co-design and co-generation phase of the AGORA project. Their input was the most important from all the involved stakeholders, especially because they had previous experiences în the studied areas. Most of the involved NGOs have activated areas previously, which helped both us and them în the design process of the urban regeneration agenda.
In this interview we discuss the importance of participatory approaches in designing and creating public space and services.
