The Sevillian architecture studio PRÁCTICA, formed by Jaime Daroca, José Mayoral and José Ramón Sierrahas concluded with enormous success among professionals and especially among the local public, the regeneration and renaturalization project of the banks of the Somes River to its … passing through the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca. The then-emerging architects won an open international competition in 2017, called by the city council, with the aim of reviving a 15-kilometer route of the river in the considered unofficial capital of Transylvania. “During the communist era, our backs had been turned” to this river passage that includes the historic center, industrial areas and residential neighborhoods of the 60s, 70s and 80s.
The study has coordinated a large group of interdisciplinary and international collaborators, with whom it has implemented architecture, landscaping, engineering and urbanization of the infrastructure of the Somes course as it passes through this city of 300,000 inhabitants. The ideas of these young professionals and especially their execution contrast with the current state of the banks of the Guadalquivir River on Paseo Juan Carlos I in Seville, although, the architects recognize, very important steps have been taken since the regeneration for the Expo of 92 and its subsequent abandonment. “For some time now, very notable projects have been undertaken such as Tabacalera or even the Christmas screenings, as a Sevillian I am very happy,” says José Ramón Sierra. However, this architect advocates in the Seville capital for one of the keys to his project in Romania: the renaturalization of the river banks. That is, greater attention to the ecosystem. «We have chosen to cover with stone for activities, but part of that land should be to gain more green spaces. Currently, there is little room for flora and faunabut it would be very interesting from a natural point of view.
The work designed by these young people from Seville, completed in a timely manner thanks to the conditions imposed by obtaining European funds, stood out among more than a hundred proposals, many of them international. From Madrid Río, it is considered as one of the largest civil works in the European Union.
«We are very satisfied with the reception of the city and also with how they have valued the project internationally. “It has had a greater impact than we thought,” highlights José Ramón Sierra, one of the members of the study, who in recent years has been traveling between Seville and Madrid, and making continuous visits to the Romanian city, about which at first they were completely unaware. . The challenge was to convert the “scar” of an unintegrated river into a public space connected band in which sustainable mobility has been promoted and which has had an impact on the ecology of the city.
The Somes, which could well be the Guadalquivir, as a social space, but with deep respect for the environment. Thus, the Cluj-Napoca project understands the river as a green corridor capable of connecting other nearby public spaces thanks to the incorporation of a network of roads, cycle paths and pedestrian bridges. Its course gains thickness, giving rise to a set of new public spaces: parking lots converted into squares with views of the river and banks that incorporate beaches and stands.
This is achieved thanks to the widening of the river section, which serves as support for a terrace system. And it allows the shore to be converted into a more diverse ecosystem, which recovers different species of local vegetation, rocks, sand and biofilms. Biodiversity, the formation of microclimates, the absorption of CO2 and the control of invasive species are promoted.
The job landlab landscape It has also been fundamental in this plan. “The planting of species has been designed according to the distance from the water and the distance they need to live,” highlights Sierra, expectant because nature can further beautify this recovered space for citizens.
The project to regenerate and renaturalize the banks of the Somes has a long history of recognition. He was invited by the curator of the exhibition, the Lebanese Hashim Sarkis, to the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021 and a year later to the Lisbon Biennale. It has been the subject of exhibitions and won architecture awards in Romania. Furthermore, he is a finalist for the FAD Awards of this 2024a recognition that, among others, Norman Foster, Rafael Moneo, Eduardo Soto de Moura or, more recently, Luis Mansilla and Emilio Tuñón Álvarez have obtained for the Gallery of the Royal Collections.
