Romanian students design sustainable areas in four cities across the country. They compete in the RESPO CITY 2023 competition!
Students from architecture and urban planning faculties across the country are getting involved in the construction of future sustainable cities in Romania and, from today until the 3rd of April, they can submit projects to design specific areas in Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi and Bucharest, as part of the second edition of the RESPO CITY competition.
According to the rules, the students will design a collection centre for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) for one of the four proposed sites in Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi and Bucharest. People will be able to bring in their end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment for proper collection and recycling, removing the danger of polluting the environment. The WEEE collection area will have a surface area of 200 m2. In addition, the centre must include a green recreational area for the public (40% of the total surface area), and an area for education and awareness-raising for visitors.
The students need to design these centres so that they can be adapted to other sites in the country. Thus, the participant will also sketch a site plan demonstrating that the modules proposed for the chosen site can be adapted to each of the other sites. In this way, the solution developed should be modular, adaptable, reversible and sustainable by design.
The projects submitted on respocity.ro by 3 April will be reviewed by an expert jury and ten of them will enter the grand finale. The RESPO CITY 2023 Gala will take place on 12 April in Bucharest, where the winners will be announced. The first-place winner will receive EUR 5000, the second place will be awarded EUR 2000 and the third place EUR 1000.
RESPO CITY, now in its second edition, is the largest urban design competition in Romania, initiated by the RESPO WEEE Association, in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests. This year, the competition has the support of Iasi City Hall and the support of MIELE and BCR.
Iasi City Hall has shown its openness to turn the students’ vision into reality. Through this partnership, Iasi City Hall will carefully examine the projects of the RESPO CITY competition finalists and can decide to what extent one of these concepts is in line with the urban development direction of the municipality. This can be the starting point for the city’s future development plans to create an area dedicated to environmental responsibility.
The projects will be examined by an expert jury made up of:
• Ștefan Ghenciulescu – editor-in-chief of Zeppelin Magazine and lecturer within “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest
• Mihai Drăgan – Director of Communication within the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests
• Șerban Țigănaș – Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism in Cluj Napoca
• Cristian Blidariu – Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism Timișoara
• Lorena Brează – founder of The Challenge Academy
• Răzvan Nica Pro-Dean of the Faculty of Architecture “G.M. Cantacuzino” (University “Gh. Asachi” in Iași)
• Amalia Enache – PRO TV news presenter, Special Guest
Details of the theme, site locations, timetable, project submission conditions and judging criteria are available on the competition website respocity.ro.
“The RESPO CITY competition prepares Romania for the integration of the collection of waste electrical and electronic equipment into the everyday life of cities and their inhabitants.
This competition of ideas proposes to transform sites in Bucharest, Iasi, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara into small green cities, where citizens can bring their WEEE for responsible collection, but where there are also meeting places for the community, playgrounds for children, corners dedicated to the exchange of ideas and conferences for environmental education.
We are now at the second edition of this competition and we expect to have many more projects entered in the competition, especially as we have organised 4 workshops with our partner Universities, just to make students more familiar with WEEE issues and the theme of our competition. In addition, Iasi City Hall now becomes a partner of the RESPO CITY competition, and together we take a step forward to turn the students’ vision from a project into reality”, says Cristian Pocol, President of RESPO DEEE Association (www.respo.ro (www.respo.ro).
RESPO CITY is also the most awarded and appreciated urban design competition nationwide, awarded with the Sustainability Award at the “Values of Romania” Gala, organized by BIZ Magazine, and a special prize at the FORBES Life Awards 2022.
The RESPO CITY competition is also held in partnership with the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Bucharest, the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Timisoara, the Faculty of Construction, Cadastre and Architecture of the University of Oradea, the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Cluj-Napoca and the Faculty of Architecture of Iasi.
