Developed as a market town around what is today known as the old
\ntown, mainly concentrated along Lipscani Street, Bucharest originally extended
\nsouthwards, on the banks of Dambovita River, towards the hill currently known
\nas Dealul Mitropoliei. Over the following centuries, particularly after it
\nbecame the country’s capital, the city expanded in all directions.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For a long time, local authorities were not interested in regulating
\nthe ever more buildings that appeared at the outskirts, to host the growing
\nnumber of underprivileged people. It was only towards the end of the 19th
\nCentury that the first normative acts were endorsed, which regulated housing at
\nthe periphery of the town, particularly in terms of enforcing public hygiene
\nrules. Architect Irina Calota, the author of a book entitled Beyond the city
\ncentre. Housing policies in Bucharest (1910-1944), tells us that the
\nimplementation of town planning rules was long overlooked:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Throughout the 19th Century, Bucharest
\nwitnessed a constant problem with its city limits. Although there was an
\nofficial administrative boundary, the city kept growing. So there was a stark
\ndifference between the administrative boundary and the limit of the urban
\nfabric. Unlike other cities, whose fortified lines served as clear boundaries,
\nBucharest was trying to instate a physical limit in a different way:
\nauthorities would first build a ring road, then a ring road doubled by an
\nesplanade, and several other successive barriers of this kind, to prevent the
\ncity from expanding beyond that limit. There were many initiatives by means of
\nwhich the authorities sought to keep the city from spilling over its limits.
\nWhy were they doing that? Because the administration wanted to focus on the
\ndevelopment and modernization of the central part of the city, with the
\nperiphery left for a future moment when there would be enough money to do this.
\nIn fact, it was a form of disregarding the outskirts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Still, after 1890, the first signs appeared of a change in outlook.
\nThe city started to grow massively towards the north and then east. In fact,
\n1895 is when the City Hall, headed by Mayor Nicolae Filipescu, first issued
\nregulations concerning Bucharest’s outskirts. He decided to include the
\nneighbouring villages, which were in fact closely tied to the capital city,
\ninto the city limits, so that they may be subject to building codes and town
\nplanning rules. The regulations adopted on this occasion make no distinction
\nbetween the centre and periphery, and the rules concerning the alignment of
\nbuildings and the parcelling of land applied indiscriminatingly to the entire
\nsurface area of Bucharest. The regulation and administration of periphery areas
\nwere stepped up after World War I. In 1921 the first town planning code was
\nendorsed, the predecessor of today’s General Urban Plan, which primarily
\nconcerned the city’s periphery, accounting for the vast majority of its surface
\narea beyond the city centre. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Architect Irina Calota gives us details:<\/p>\n
A vernacular densification of the city was made, because there were large
\nplots of land on the outskirts of the city and because the way houses were disposed
\nhad not been officially regulated until the inter-war period. In other words,
\npeople followed a tradition inspired by the rural world. Those huge plots of
\nland had been divided lengthwise, resulting in narrow and very long strips of
\nland. Consequently, only narrow and long buildings could be built on those
\nplots. Houses had only one room facing the street and a lateral entrance. They
\nwere expanded horizontally, in keeping with the owners’ needs, resulting in
\nwhat we call today ‘wagon-like houses,’ typical of Bucharest.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Apart from Nicolae Filipescu,
\nanother prominent mayor was Vintil\u0103 Br\u0103tianu. Irina Calot\u0103 tells us more about
\nhim:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In the first decade of the 20th Century, Vintila Bratianu was the
\none who initiated and carried out urban planning works on the outskirts of the
\ncity. It was also during his term in office that the founding stone was laid
\nfor the so-called Communal Society, which was called the Communal Cheap Housing
\nSociety as of 1910, being the first public company that built cheap houses for
\nthe masses. This has proven that in time, the local administration has learnt
\nsomething new: the restrictive measures banning some building habits were not
\nenough. In order to be able to solve housing problems, the city hall had to get
\nactively involved in building homes. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Communal Cheap Housing
\nSociety initially functioned as a financial institution lending money to people
\nwith small revenues, workers, clerks and public servants. Along the years, it
\nactually started to build whole residential districts, based on to clear-cut town
\nplanning rules and, in keeping with a unified architectural vision. These
\nhouses can still be seen today in Drumul S\u0103rii, Vatra Luminoas\u0103 and Lacul Tei
\nneighbourhoods, which were once situated on the outskirts of the city and which
\nare now highly appreciated for their beauty. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Developed as a market town around what is today known as the old town, mainly concentrated along Lipscani Street, Bucharest originally extended southwards<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45464,45463,45462],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-168976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-beyond-the-city-centre-housing-policies-in-bucharest","tag-architect-irina-calota","tag-bucharest-outskirts"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n