PRÁCTICA was founded by Jaime Daroca, José Mayoral and José Ramón Sierra while working together at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Their broad international professional experiences throughout Switzerland, UK, USA, Chile and Spain, and collaboration with firms such as Herzog & de Meuron, David Chipperfield Architects and Rafael Moneo, project a global view on their works of various scales and programs.
PRÁCTICA’s work has been exhibited and published at several international institutions such as MoMA New York, the Architecture Biennials of Venice, Chile and Spain, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Columbia University GSAPP and University of Seville among others.
Project description in English
The Somes River crosses the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, for 15 kilometers, encountering diverse urban conditions: the historic center, industrial areas and housing neighborhoods. 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 connection between the city and the river.
This project stems from an open international Competition 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 as a green connector and a dignified public space
The project understands the Somes as a green corridor capable even of connecting with other nearby green spaces, which were functioning in isolation, thanks to the incorporation of a network of pedestrian paths and bike lanes.
Its course acquires thickness due to the activation of a set of new public spaces. The riverbanks are, thus, activated as collective spaces to contemplate, enjoy and access the course of the river, its fauna and flora.
Renaturalization
The project recovers the natural character of the river banks, expanding and modifying the pre-existing thin and hard edge into a softer and more natural environment. This is achieved by widening the river section, which supports a system of terraces. And it allows the banks to become a more diverse ecosystem which hosts different species of local vegetation, rocks, sand and biorolls.
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 of encounter and exchange between the diverse communities that inhabit the city.
The recovery of the riverbanks has multiple benefits, beyond social strata and physical boundaries. It acts as a new participatory infrastructure that addresses both local and global contexts. It proposes a new framework for dialogue and coexistence through architecture, and brings together the efforts of a broad multidisciplinary team, Spanish and local, made up of professionals in architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, urban planning, as well as government agencies and the everyday users of the site.
