This is a proposal for a satellite town of about 12,000 population on a rural site north-west of Bucharest, Romania. Its design is a reaction against typical twentieth century urban development in that it has no housing estates, industrial estates, retail parks or business parks. Instead it is made up of four neighbourhoods where people will be within five minutes’ walk from shops, offices and other forms of employment, primary schools, health facilities, entertainment, recreation and green spaces. The central neighbourhood is the centre of the town and contains the town hall, police station, library and a greater range of shops. The focus of the centre is a large town square which acts as a gathering place for the community and the location of an open-air market. The main public green space is between the town and the protected forest to the north-east. No private buildings are more than five or six storeys high, while most streets are narrow enough to give a feeling you are in the town.
To make the town feel part of its setting the architecture avoid anonymous contemporary styles and instead is based on the best examples of traditional Romanian townscape – from towns like Sibio, Brasov, Targoviste, Campulung, Muscal and Sighisoara – where the distinctive characteristics are brightly coloured rendered walls, tall elegant windows with contrasting surrounds, classical string courses, quoins, pilasters and plinths, large steep roofs with small dormers and ventilators, while some of the grander buildings have exuberant Baroque or Turkish Ottoman motifs. The squares have cobbled paving and occasional trees and are the setting for the principal public buildings which often include decorative motifs and landmark towers.
Follow the link below for a video walkthrough of the proposed poject.
http://www.eshaarchitects.co.uk/services-illustration-computer-images.html#viz-buch-a