Riverscape as Horizon: Reconceptualizing Rivers as the Lifeblood of the Land

Starting from the recent projects for redesigning the Some! River in Cluj, we explore the possible meanings of the river as a horizon. The interview is divided into three parts. The first part addresses questions to PRÁCTICA, the winning team of the 2017 international design competition Rethinking Someș. The team designed two large areas of the Some! River, Armătura Park and the Grigorescu area, and proposed a master plan for the river in Cluj. The concept for the design competition based on river regeneration and renaturation of the river was presented at the Venice Biennale in 2021 and was highly praised by the professional community; however, the implemented version required some adjustments to stakeholders’ requirements. This interview seeks to better understand the project, its intentions, the challenges involved in its implementation, and its future evolution.

The second part of the interview is conducted with architects Vlad Sebastian Rusu and Octav Olănescu, both of whom were part of the team that redesigned Feroviarilor Park following an international design competition in 2018. They have been involved in other landscape projects that include waterscapes, rivers, and seashores, such as the design competition for Mamaia Seaside in 2023 (1st prize), and they also work on the redesign of Caragiale Park (currently under construction), a project that will uncover a part of a canal, Canalul Morii. They provide useful insights into legislation and norms regarding nature-based solutions when dealing with water.

The third part of the interview discusses The Blue-Green Corridor of the Someș River in the Metropolitan Area of Cluj with three members of the team, architects Camelia Sisak and Mircea Munteanu, and landscape architect Ana Horhat. This ambitious project aims to connect the metropolitan area of Cluj along 45 kilometers of the river and its tributaries. The team has won other design competitions for public parks, such as East Park and Cetățuia Hill in Cluj, or Lacul Morii Park in Bucharest, and they reflected on a balanced approach in designing with nature.

Several topics recur in our conversations. The first topic concerns the obstacles to implementing nature-based solutions (NBS). Although current European policies support the restoration of watercourses and fund projects for NBS, local legislation and guidelines are outdated. We analyze the process from design to implementation and ask ourselves what are the obstacles to river restoration in Romania.

The second common topic is the pressure of real estate development on the riverbanks. Ever since the reconfiguration of green areas near the Some! river has increased real estate interest, there is a risk of losing urban nature and biodiversity and of green gentrification. In the context of large-scale private projects on the riverbanks (such as Rivus Carbochim, the largest mall in Romania with an underground parking lot of approximately 5,000 spaces), we discuss the development on private plots near the river, trying to understand how to protect the riverside landscape within the city and secure blue-green corridors.

The third common topic is public participation. There were many discussions during the construction phase of the Some! projects and many controversies, such as those related to the removal of riparian vegetation. I was concerned with finding out how to ensure open participation in future projects and whether co-design is possible in the process of creating green-blue corridors.

In “Finding the Voice of the River,” Gary Brierley advocates for river restoration not only from an economically driven management perspective that acknowledges ecosystem services, consent processes, and environmental trade-o%s, but also from a socio-cultural perspective that “embraces holistic approaches to social and environmental justice, reconceptualizing rivers as the lifeblood of the land, allowing living rivers to express their own voice.” All these amount to a possible approach to understanding landscape as a horizon.