Marginalia

LIMITS WITHIN THE URBAN REALM

Erasing the Limit:

Industrial Heritage in the City of Tomorrow

Dr. Arch. Assist. Trifa Raluca-Maria

”Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbansim Bucharest, ROMANIA
trifa_raluca@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

The industrialization process is indisputably related to the development of the

modern city: if, at the beginning the last century, the industrial buildings and sites were
located outside the city centre, today with the expansion of the urban boundaries, the
industrial units have become an integral part of the urban core, structuring and conditioning
the evolution of a vast territory. Unfortunately, the de-industrialization process which started
in the second half of the last century led to the collapse of existing industrial units, which
have restricted their activities or have been closed and abandoned. As a result, this
phenomenon has caused the fragmentation and de-structuring of the urban tissue, due to
the presence of an increased number of obsolete industrial spaces (wasteland).

The resulting tensions and imbalances between the urban core and the industrial
unit can be easily outlined by the severe changes in the morphology, development and
function of the contemporary city. Can the urban image and the spatial cohesion be
restored without erasing the remains of the industrial age? How can the regeneration of
former industrial units restructure the city and what are the implications driven by these
interventions? What are the factors that determine the new way of using the industrial
buildings according to the current needs of the city? This article tries to answer these
questions, based on the analysis of the industrial heritage (yet) existent in Romania.