Thanks to the activation of different public spaces and the creation of new ones, the project manages to activate the banks of the river as spaces for enjoyment and contemplation of its fauna and flora. The intervention promotes biodiversity by transforming the shore into a more diverse ecosystem that recovers different species of local vegetation, rocks, sand and biofilms.
New green infrastructure on the Somes River by PRACTICA. Photograph by Sergiu Razvan.
Project description by PRÁCTICA
The project understands the Somes River as a green corridor capable of connecting other nearby public spaces thanks to the incorporation of a network of paths, bicycle paths and pedestrian bridges. The course of the river gains thickness, giving rise to a set of new public spaces: parking lots converted into squares with views of the river and banks that incorporate beaches and steps. In this way, the banks are activated as true spaces to access the river course and contemplate and enjoy its fauna and flora.
The project recovers the natural character of the environment, expanding and modifying the pre-existing thin and hard edge into a softer and more natural environment. The action promotes biodiversity, the formation of microclimates, the absorption of CO2 and the control of invasive species.
The project redesigns the river as a new social space that functions at different scales and with various programs, a new green infrastructure, a space for meeting and exchange between the various communities that inhabit the city of Cluj-Napoca, with more than 300,000 inhabitants.
New green infrastructure on the Somes River by PRACTICA. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
The Somes River crosses the city of Cluj-Napoca (Romania) for 15 kilometers, encountering diverse urban conditions: the historic center, industrial areas and residential neighborhoods from the 60s and 70s. During the second half of the 20th century , its banks were modified with concrete walls, which established a drastic difference in height and limited the visual and physical relationship between city and river.
This project was born from an open international competition held in 2017. It is an example of urban regeneration and renaturalization, which revalues the role of the Somes for the city, as well as the link between the two. The river is conceived as a green corridor that, through a network of sustainable mobility paths, connects multiple public spaces and green areas. At the same time, a system of natural terraces is designed to renaturalize the environment, transforming the hard boundary between the city and the river into a wider and more permeable bank that allows for biodiversity.
The river as a green connector and revalued public space
The project understands the Somes as a green corridor capable of even connecting with other nearby green spaces, which functioned in isolation (the Simion Bărnuțiur Central Park or the Cetățuia Park). And this thanks to the incorporation of a network of pedestrian paths and bicycle lanes.
Its course gains thickness thanks to the activation of a set of new public spaces: parking lots converted into squares with views of the river and banks that incorporate beaches and steps. In this way, the banks are activated as true spaces to contemplate, enjoy and access the course of the river, its fauna and flora.
New green infrastructure on the Somes River by PRACTICA. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Renaturalization
Although it was important to transform the Somes into a connecting thorn of public spaces, it was also essential to enhance its environmental and ecological values. The project recovers the natural character of the environment, expanding and modifying the pre-existing thin and hard edge into a softer and more natural environment. This is achieved thanks to the widening of the river section, which serves as support for a terrace system. And it allows the shore to be converted into a more diverse ecosystem, which recovers different species of local vegetation, rocks, sand and biofilms. Biodiversity, the formation of microclimates, the absorption of CO2 and the control of invasive species are promoted.
Pole of community attraction and interdisciplinary collaboration
The project redesigns the river as a new social space that functions at different scales and programs, a space for meeting and exchange between the various communities that inhabit the city.
The recovery of margins has multiple benefits, beyond social strata and physical borders. It acts as a new participatory infrastructure that equally addresses the local and global context. It proposes a new framework for dialogue and coexistence through architecture, and unites the efforts of a large multidisciplinary team (Spanish and local) made up of professionals from architecture, landscaping, engineering, urban planning, as well as government organizations and citizens. daily user of the place.
