Date: 2020-now

Location: Bucharest, RO

Field: Architecture/Urban design

Use: Administrative

Size: 200.000+ sqm

As part of the ongoing technical consulting contract with the Ministry of Justice, I acted as the key consultant evaluating the concept design for the Justice District (Quarter), a 5 hectares administrative development in downtown Bucharest, including over 20 judiciary institutions at national, regional and city/sector levels. The concept design proposed by Gensler was developed alongside the World Bank urban development team and by MoJ (Ministry of Justice) project team – with myself as the key technical counterpart – with input from project beneficiaries, along a series of sessions and presentations that spanned across a few months.

The main challenges of the project were the high density of the design brief, also in tandem with urban regulations and specific use requirements (on the architectural side) and the activation of the site, or opportunities for public use at ground-floor levels, in the context of security requirements and legal-administrative limitations for non-judiciary uses (on the urban side). The development of an iconic image for the complex and its integration in the central area, including its stitching to the local network of public-pedestrian spaces, as well as the organization of parking and access were additional main topic for the design.

The concept was finalized in late 2020 and published on MoJ’s social media page to gather public feedback, with its implementation in the next design phases (zonal urban plan, design brief) continuing throughout 2021 and beyond.