PAVILION

Is there anyone around who says nay?
Utopian thinking, what will you do about the new
buildings? What will you do about the land properties
broken asunder into thousands and thousands
of crooked lots? How will you handle the
expropriation problem? What about the money?
What will you do about man's attachment to his
property? How will you handle the Constitution
in this matter? What about the slums? What will
you do about the old good picturesque landscape?
What about politics? What will you do
about the green belt?
All you need to make Utopia come' true is determination
and an iron hand, as there was one in
Bucharest before.
Of course, we do not ask for the ideal thing to
happen. A sound guiding line will essentially
change the town; moreover, if we put into practice,
as much as we can, the latest deeds of
stormy thinking, we will set the way wide open
for a better and greater future.
I can see nothing impossible about it! There are
many hardships ahead for us to overcome, yet,
I am afraid of one single multi-headed political
monster. I have no intention to give directions
(we are just humble designers), yet I am going
to draft some practical ideas. Urban-planning
needs directed architecture.
1. The first obstacle is the small land property
that is being endlessly sliced.
We don't need a communist regime to do away
with them, or to make changes in the
Constitution. Just look around. There are but
few years since collective properties have been
created and the person living on the 7th floor
can see the garden he shares with 60 people.
Which share is his? He can't see it at all!
However, his mind can understand that no matter
how poor he is, he can benefit from this kind
of shared economical living and live in a wide
boulevard. He has got a courtyard, yet he cannot
build an enclosure. He has got himself a
home, yet he cannot dance there all night long.
It is his and everyone else's. The town itself
belongs to him and to others, too. The street
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belongs to every one. His freedom is limited for
the sake of the communal well-being. Here is a
proposal!
The commune, according to the new town master
plan, assisted by some banks, will make a
project for a 12 floor building provided with modern
and comfortable apartments, placed, let's
say, on one side of the Cișmigiu Gardens. The
commune will exchange these comfortable and
luxurious buildings for a series of expropriated
land properties located in the central area,
according to the master plan. The density of
300 to 500 inhabitants per ha will have the
advantage to double the current density of 150
inhabitants per ha, and free a double surface of
land. Moreover, the building expenses will be
covered by the estate value, and once the rest
is sold, some new apartment buildings will be
built, and so on.
Do not weep over the Cișmigiu Gardens,
because each unit will have its own "cișmigiu
garden" A board of lawyers and economists will
have to deal with the calculation and revise the
legislation.
2. When the streets with heavy traffic are
widened and straightened the inhabitants of
those areas will get in exchange for their expropriated
property the possibility to build houses
under controlled architectural counseling. This
should be considered as counter value, and as
devaluation in case no multi-storied houses ore
allowed to be built.
3. When useless traffic lanes disappear, the
inhabitants will get apartments in exchange for
their expropriated property, on those very premises,
which will contain gardens too.
By successive concentration and moving of the
dwellings away from the town centre, the commune
will own the most valuable land that will
be sold to various companies that accept to
refurbish the commercial centre under an
imposed plan. The profits obtained from such
operations will be used for the utility system,
highways, subway trains etc.
The traffic will be made easier when the trams
run in the underground, offering a more rapid
means of transport to workers. The highways
will be designed to shrink the distance between
the farthest districts of the town, which will be
also reduced due to the growing density.
If all my suggestions and examples are still
"under study", at least one of them has to be
quickly taken. The changing of Bucharest slums
and their picturesque scenery.
If we have been spared the filthiness of the old
city centers, we have been "blessed" with those
slums that have neither kerbs nor sewers or
light but instead they do have a multitude of clay
blind walls and wooden houses covered with
cardboard that make us feel ashamed in front of
foreign visitors.
That kind of policy that overrules order, and
against the strong protests from urban-planners,
it allows the curse of endless lotting in the
slums. There is a solution to it: with its own
funds the commune will create a large area of
400x200 m for low-price dwellings. It will contain
beautiful gardens and resting places and
the entire slum of about 25-30,000 souls, whose
property was expropriated, will fit into it. In
exchange for a three room windowless hut they
will get 2 or 3 rooms, a kitchen, public laundry,
bathrooms, toilets, running water and a wonderful
garden.
I can't believe that one of those poor families,
thronging in unhealthy huts, would turn down
such on offer. Well, as for those who wouldn't
give it up wearing their pajamas, leaning
against their fence all Sunday long, I would
send them to a village, 20 km off Bucharest.
The inhabitants of Bucharest should wish for
and suffer Bucharest's progress.
Should Lipscani street and some suburban lots
disappear due to this plan, then modern urbanplanning
will preserve the old splendors of the
city, such as Kisseleff Avenue, the new boulevards
that will appear narrowly tailored, quite
soon, Calea Victoriei, and others, yet, on a different
scale and geometrically cut, by all
means. The urban-planner should keep the
church squares; however, he has to air the town
centre that began to overcrowd.
We shall be able to face the future proudly, provided
we build for tomorrow and carefully handle
the growth of the city and the health of our
heirs now, at the eleventh hour which measures
our own commitment.
We are determined to understand our time in an
optimistic manner. Geometry and straight line
are unique and beautiful because they alone
belong to art and intelligence, as relevant
expressions of the clear goal and human firmness.
We are for the new construction that uses or
intensely expresses the functional aesthetics
belonging to the century of the machine and
opens the way to industrialization, on ideal for
the whole economy of our age.
We are determined to make our capital keep
with the present achievements, with all necessary
provisions and effects of the new style in
modern urbanism, as long as it is still time.
Any provision concerning health, traffic, living
facilities that can be arrived at by either time
saving of steady concern for aesthetically and
modern convenience requirements should prevail
in the conception of the town master plan.
Thus in 50 years, Bucharest will turn into a
happy, healthy town with gardens, parks, and
palaces, a garden-city as it suits our climate.
Every age has its own picturesque landscape,
and no matter how pathetic the ruins may look
like, we vote for the present, colourful life and its
picturesque ambience. We have no time to
lament over the past, our duty is to see what we
can do about future...
It's high time we created a prophetic and bright
urbanism.
Towards on Architecture of Bucharest, Bucharest, f.a.
(1935], p.7-20
* The texts have been selected and compiled by
Nicolae Lascu.
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