Creating places in undesired spaces, Community Center in District 5, Bucharest

Authors’ Comment

The diploma project follows the steps for the realization of a Community Center (of lifelong learning) that will bring together the necessary functions for the development or consolidation of a community and the ways in which it can influence the inhabitants in a positive way. It originates on the border between the Ferentari-Rahova neighborhoods, an area that has been characterized over time by the majority's tendency to categorize it — without really knowing it — as inferior. Thus, the image already created in people's minds of these neighborhoods led, over time, to the social exclusion of the inhabitants, to their distancing from educational opportunities, from full participation in the economic, social or cultural life of society.
My proposal consists in creating a point as part of a strategy of punctual interventions that culminates with this larger intervention, a community center. The strategy is called LOCUS5, which has both the basic Latin meaning of a particular place, not just any place, and is also an abbreviation for the Place for Opportunities of Forgotten Communities in District 5. In this sense, I propose to use the shapes, materials and dimensions familiar to the inhabitants, but at the same time to add an element of architectural discernment. Also, by rendering the public space, in various forms, I will encourage a series of learning opportunities and social interactions through which I aim to contribute to the creation of a sense of belonging among the inhabitants which, in the end, will become a determining factor in the reintegration of these forgotten communities of the Ferentari-Rahova neighborhoods.
By responding to the local context and available resources, implementing new opportunities for education, development, inclusion, and equality through public or semi-public spaces, architecture can be an example that a well-designed building, an appropriately thought-out interior or exterior space should not be considered a "luxury," but a normality.