Anca Ioana Ionescu
Urbanism
Image: The layered structural systems that compose the integrated strategy: Nature Permeability, Porosity of Meaningful Places, Strategic Crossings, Former Production Areas on the Edge and the slow mobility backbone, The Valley Route
Towards A Territorial City: The case of an Eastern European city and its surrounding territory
The project for the territorial city seeks to support the integration between Craiova, a mid-sized Eastern European city, and its surrounding natural and rural territory. Craiova is tangent to Jiu River, which crosses 34 rural administrative units on a 50 km distance across the county and flows into the Danube. Jiu River valley could be Craiova’s link to the Danube, a complex carrying structure which could evolve as a social and ecological park open to unknown futures.
Drawing on Corboz’s definition of the territory as a palimpsest of unfinished stories encoded in morphology and society, the project builds upon current trends, projects, different groups of local actors and existing morphological structures to prepare the common ground between Craiova and the natural-rural valley. Limits and trajectories to the core are scaffolded to consolidate local identity and exchange. Three principles guide the construction of the scaffolding of the territory: porosity, permeability and correspondence.