The project Cartier Bumbacului explores the relationship between a place and its mobile residents, and the spatial relations between the two conditions of daily life and emergencies. In this proposal, the cluster of buildings and the courtyard at the new center create secluded yet accessible neighborhood spaces. Ground floor community uses are proposed along with apartments, student housing and artist’s residences on upper floors to create a variety of occupations which can both add to the everyday life of the site and adapt in different ways for short-term and long-term emergency solutions. Through the combination of these scenarios the project caters to the local neighborhood alongside a community of displaced people, envisioning ways in which both can contribute to the liveliness of the site regardless of the current situation.
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Building from this process of rejuvenation, the project for Cartier Bumbacului investigates how the lively reoccupation of a neglected site in Bucharest can become a tool to reimagine an approach to emergency and contingency planning. The necessity of this has been made apparent in light of the influx of Ukrainian refugees to Romania in 2022 but also considers the eventuality of internal displacement due to the high earthquake risk of Bucharest.
In this proposal, the cluster of buildings and the courtyard at their center create a dynamic neighborhood within themselves. Ground floor community uses are proposed along with apartments, student housing and artist’s residences on upper floors to create a variety of occupations which can both add to the everyday life of the site and adapt in different ways for short-term and long-term emergency solutions. Through the combination of these scenarios the project caters to local neighborhood alongside a community of displaced people, envisioning ways in which both can contribute to the liveliness of the site regardless of the current situation.