Ana-Maria Branea, Marius Găman, Mihai Danciu teach at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Politehnica University of Timișoara. They collaborate in guiding urban planning workshops and in research projects, dealing with urban regeneration and sustainable development.
Project description in English
The exhibition design concept reflects the theme of the project, linear elements, through ther duality of separator and joint. Continuous 20m planks divide the space and lead visitors to the 8m table, mirrored to emphasize the urban corridor. The visitors themselves are separated and then brought together by interacting with the model illustrating a selection of the possible implementation options.
The theme of the proposed project was to explore the theme of the urban corridor, a through space, connecting two important points in a city, separating different neighborhoods and facilitating access within them. An open question was chosen, seeking multiple answers and celebrating the plurality of architectural values, what are and what could these corridors become, urban elements of separation, definition or connection? By adapting them to the current problems of the 21st century: climate change, over-consumption of resources, physical interactions replaced by digital ones, possible economic or health crises, pollution, and finally the quality of life and happiness of urban dwellers, the aim was both to generate solutions and typologies of approach and to develop students' problem-solving skills.
We chose the theme of urban corridors because of their duality. A space of passage linking two major points of a city but at the same time separating tangent areas. Even this separation can have positive or negative connotations in the city, demarcating neighborhoods with a different character and ensuring their spatial identity or acting as a physical and psychological barrier between two neighborhoods. Referred to as urban trails, they connect not only the end points but also tangential areas through the permeability of the boundaries forming a network of concentrated urban developments, characterized by high density, mix of functions, an urban attractor.
Since it was not intended to offer a single "ideal" solution but several options, each with its own strengths and consequently possible shortcomings, to create the basis for necessary discussions between interested urban actors, specialists, owners, investors, civil society, NGOs, etc., a design research methodology was chosen. For each urban corridor at least 5 variants quantified according to economic, ecological and social parameters were proposed.
