Initiatives / Experiments / Visions

The Healing Grid - from drainage channels to ecological corridors

Principal author

Loredana Gaiță

Profession

Arhitect

Co-authors (team members)

Mihai Danciu

Collaborators (team members)

Bianca Băilă, Larisa Gărdean, Anca Giuchi, Raluca Hurmuz, Alex Iliescu, Alex Lorinți, Rareș Moldovan, Mihai Munteanu, Andreea Pătroi, Alexandru Todirică

External collaborators

Radu Radoslav, Sorin Ciurariu, Radu Nedelcu, Marius Silivășan, Eugen Pănescu, Alexandru Drăgan

Project year

2018

Location

Timișoara

Project description

Timisoara is one of the magnet cities of Romania, with the potential to exceed 800,000 inhabitants in the following years. The highest real estate pressure is placed on the periurban and metropolitan area, therefore the sprawl process affects the relationship between the natural and the built environment. This initiative started from the premise that the network of drainage channels from Timisoara’s Pole of Growth (TPG) presents a major opportunity - to become the framework of a new green-blue grid, that functions as a system of interconnected ecological corridors, which will ensure the penetration of nature within the localities. This can bring many benefits: facilitates fauna and flora, creates spaces for recreation and social interaction, stimulates green mobility, regulates temperatures and increases the general urban comfort. At the same time, ignoring the utilitarian role of the channels betrays an unsustainable urban policy and creates major flood risks and, in the long run, re-swamping the TPG area. A proactive strategy must protect green areas in the early stages of design. In the context of Timisoara and neighboring villages being far from providing the minimum necessary of 26 square meters of green space per capita and given the real estate pressures, the use of the channel grid is the only chance of creating new and interconnected green spaces. In order to capitalize on the existing situation and to transform drainage channels into ecological corridors, there is a need for a broad understanding and assumption of the existing situation - of the potential but also of the risks - by the local, county and national administrations and by the inhabitants. The purpose of the Healing Grid initiative is to promote and capitalize on the role of ecological corridors through bottom-up awareness and top-down actions which will eventually lead to new legislative proposals. The initiative has a participative and multidisciplinary approach, thus facilitates the collaboration between diverse professionals (urban planners, IT specialists, landscape architects, biologists, engineers, geographers) and local actors (academics, institutions, city halls, NGOs, inhabitants). The first objective was making a Good Practice Guide- from Drainage Channels to Ecological Corridors. The guide serves as a tool for informing about the utilitarian role, transformation potential and medium and long term action for the benefit of current and future TPG residents. The project was generated within Resilience Lab Timisoara, supported by Actors of Urban Change.

Text description of the author

Loredana Gaita is an architect and cultural operator. She studied and worked in Timisoara and Brussels and initiated, coordinated or contributed to numerous projects testing social mechanisms for sustainable urban development. Loredana is the president of În comunitate NGO, initiator of Resilience Lab Timisoara and was the coordinator of the Cultural Program during Timişoara's candidacy for the title of European Capital of Culture 2021.

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