Berzei 21 - EN version

One urban regeneration project at the heart of the city

* Disclaimer: This presentation is the illustration of a vision.

Berzei 21 e-mail: salut@berzei21.

Argument |

Public letter adressed to the Bucharest City Hall, 26.01.2022 We need your involvement and we present the solution packages that can transform an unused industrial space into what could become the biggest and most complete local and regional creative hub. The space, identified at 21, Berzei Str., is owned by the Bucharest Town Hall and is necessary for the creative and cultural local agenda and for the increase of life quality in the neighborhood and the city.

This project, as shown in the experience of other cities, can become one of the growth engines that help Bucharest become one of the most dynamic European capitals in the coming decade. Cultural and creative industries, as well as the nonprofit sector produce high social value and one of the most important development vectors of the city.

These are areas that need support in order to develop, especially in the startup phase, and their support can consist of affordable working costs, access to instruments and networks of learning and support, exposure towards a large audience.

Bucharest still lacks in quality cultural and exhibitional spaces. Bucharest needs a representative public space that allows for dialogue with civil society, information and debate on its development and maintenance. Our city needs a landmark cultural and creative project, that generates quality physical and public infrastructure, increases local cultural consumption, facilitates collaborative processes, contributes to the increase of quality of cultural production.

We found, in the heart of the Creative Quarter, 21 Berzei Complex, the former REBU garages. Part of a plot of land of 22,680 sqm, owned by the Bucharest Town Hall, these are the remains of the industrial era in the Bucharest city center and include a series of industrial halls that are part of the city industrial patrimony. Buildings are currently unused, deteriorated and take up a space of 8,360 sqm.

How the partnership would work

PUBLIC Governmental institutions: The National Heritage Institute Local administration: Bucharest Town Hall` Other public entities: Sector 1 District Hall, ARCUB, others

Who are we?

PRIVATE-CITIZEN Ecosystem-organizations from the civil society • Responsible businesses and creative industries • Community organizations • Cultural institutions • Educational institutions, who in turn bring: • Social innovators and active citizens

Our organizations are known as energy catalysts in the creative communities and civil society, and our missions and actions are closely related to the city, creative industries and society development.

In the virtue of: • principles of adaptive reuse of the industrial patrimony - part of the common mission of signitaries • the need for a central, representative location in the Creative Quarter, close to the Town Hall and most of the representative institutions of the cultural sector • taking into account the preoccupations, knowledge, expertise of the signitaries, for an efficient use of resources, We consider that the REBU halls are a suitable location for a project this size, in the current context.

More concretely, our proposal implies the transformation of the 21 Berzei Complex into a space with mixed cultural, creative and strategic functions: cultural production, working spaces, dialogue and meetings, exhibitions, events, show business spaces, hospitality, public utility outside spaces, as well as spaces dedicated to professional development in the patrimonio field, with a focus on urban development and the future of the city, in order to ensure an essential dialogue between local public administration, private entities, academia and nonprofit.

Thus, through the efficient reuse of the former REBU halls, by opening the adjacent public space and creating new social and cultural functions for and together with the community, the five organizations propose the development of an authentic urban regeneration process, an example of good practices and public-private partnership.

With us, there are over 40 organizations in the civil society that support this project and wish to get involved (read the open letter they signed, here: www.berzei21.ro).

Berzei 21 e-mail: salut@berzei21.

REBU halls, a valuable former industrial site, currently underused, in the heart of the Creative Quarter.

e-mail: salut@berzei21.

Historical building

- Space for cultural events

Existing building - HORECA

Existing building

- Info Point -Resource center

Street plinth (front) Historical building

- Space for offices / residences - Library coffee shop

Residences/ working spaces for:

- artists, designers, programmers, NGOs ≈ 25 modular spaces - Semi public spaces and gardens

Main entrance

BERZEI STREET

Berzei Complex is defined as: • The city’s creative center of the city, as a common good • A mixed-use center, including social and economical infrastructure for the neighborhood, city, region • Sustainable, through: 1. The reuse of the built environment and the use of good practices in adaptive industrial transformation 2. The qualitative public spaces, diverse in character and usage, open-to-all categories of citizens 3. the implementation approach (co-creation and coproduction), the iconic participatory governance model (public-private partnership and various financing methods) • Touristically attractive and for the city brand/ image

Berzei 21

Light structure

New mixed-use building:

- Technical space for Pilot Centers

- Ground floor: Town hall, office for building authorizations, relationship of Town Hall with other institutions - Cube: immersive space for new media arts - Floors: office space or accomodations

Historical building

- Shop

New mixed building Public space for urban sports

- basketball, skatepark, climbing, legal graffiti wall - playground for children

Piață publică

- Ground floor: bistro and day care - Floors: Office space or accommodations

Central hall of public utility - 3,600 sqm Public space between halls

Secondary access

Historical halls A-B-C 1,100 sqm

- Pilot center for the collection and reuse of construction materials coming from interventions on historical buildings - Pilot center for the experimental analysis of materials and new or historical technical solutions for the increase of energy efficiency of historical buildings - Pilot center for the maintenance of the built heritage

- Educational center for historical monuments restoration - City school, makerspace, co-working space, meeting rooms, library - young talents from the creative industries and civil society - Multifunctional space for cultural events (expositions, performances, etc)

LEGEND Main access Public spaces Public visitation routes Technical spaces

European Examples Numerous European projects of urban reconversion of an industrial space into a hub full of energy show that everybody wins. Such a hub attracts money towards the community and local budget, tourists and reputation for the city, and energy so that people in creative industries and civil society can continue their projects.

La Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille, FR La Friche was born in the former tobacco factory Seita in Marsilia, France, and is today the place of creativity and innovation.

La Friche Belle de Mai is both a space for over 70 resident organizations (400 artists and creatives work here every day) as well as cultural events (600 public events yearly, from workshops for teenagers to large festivals).

With over 450,000 visitors per year, La Friche Belle de Mai is a multi-faceted public space that includes a sports area, restaurant, 5 concert halls, common gardens, a library, a day care, 2,400 sqm of expositional space, a terrace on the roof of over 8,000 sqm and a training center.

Thank you!

Berzei 21 e-mail: salut@berzei21.ro