Re-naturalization of the Somes river by PRÁCTICA

SOMES RIVER
The regeneration and citizen activation of the banks of the Someș River stem from an open international competition organized by the Municipality of Cluj-Napoca in 2017 and were implemented with funding from the European Union.

The Someș River crosses the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, for 15 kilometers, passing through diverse urban areas: the historic center, industrial zones, and residential neighborhoods. While the connection between the city and the river has been close for centuries, this bond began to fade during the second half of the 20th century. The river was treated as a piece of hard infrastructure—a conduit primarily for transporting water and energy, as evidenced by the electric towers—without programs or uses that foster a deeper relationship. Consequently, the river’s channel underwent a process of domestication, marked by a series of concrete walls that created a significant elevation difference between the city and the river, limiting both physical and visual connections.

Given the transformations the Someș River has undergone in recent decades, which have weakened the bond between the city and the river, and considering the intrinsic potential of this natural corridor, the project aims to reimagine a new relationship between the two.

The river as a green connector
The project understands the Somes as a green corridor capable of connecting with other nearby green spaces, which were functioning in isolation such as the Simion Bărnuțiur Central Park or the Cetățuia Park, thanks to the incorporation of a network of pedestrian paths and bike lanes.
Its course acquires thickness due to the activation of a set of new public spaces: parking lots converted into squares overlooking the river and banks incorporating beaches and bleachers. The riverbanks are, thus, activated as collective spaces to contemplate, enjoy and access the course of the river, its fauna and flora.

Renaturalization
While it was important to transform the Somes into a connecting spine of public spaces, it was also essential to enhance its context and ecological values. The project recovers the natural character of the river banks, expanding and modifying the pre-existing thin and hard edge into a softer and more natural environment. This is achieved by widening the river section, which supports a system of terraces. And it allows the banks to become a more diverse ecosystem which hosts different species of local vegetation, rocks, sand and biorolls. Biodiversity, microclimate formation, CO2 absorption and invasive species control are promoted.

Pole of community attraction and interdisciplinary collaboration
The project redesigns the river as a new social space that functions at different scales and programs, a space of encounter and exchange between the diverse communities that inhabit the city.
The recovery of the riverbanks has multiple benefits, beyond social strata and physical boundaries. It acts as a new participatory infrastructure that addresses both local and global contexts. It proposes a new framework for dialogue and coexistence through architecture and brings together the efforts of a broad multidisciplinary team, Spanish and local, made up of professionals in architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, urban planning, as well as government agencies and the everyday users of the site.

Project typology:
Public space – Park – Riverbanks

• All landscape architecture offices involved in the design of landscape:
Lead architects
PRÁCTICA

Landscape architecture
Landlab

• All architecture offices involved in the design:
Lead architects
PRÁCTICA

Local architects
Planwerk

• Other credits:

Engineering
AquaProciv
Costin si Vlad Birou de Proiectare
EuroBB Energy

Construction
ACI Cluj
Socot
Simacek
Nord Conforest

Manager execution project
Baseli Drum Consult