103 – TL3781 – DE PLANO SRL
Autor principal / Main Author: Emil Burbea-Milescu, Laura-Maria Covaci, Radu-Tudor Ponta
Colaboratori arhitectură / Architectural collaborators: Lidia Danil, Ana-Maria Botez, Vlad-Ioan Buhu, Rareş David, Ioana Gheorghiţă, Alexandru Mihalescu, Tudor-Lazăr Ştreangă
„Proiectul propus demonstrează o abordare conceptuală comprehensivă și bine fundamentată. O apreciere deosebită se cuvine înaltei calități a strategiei de management apelor de suprafață, care este extinsă dincolo de limitele sitului de concurs, în folosul întregului oraș. „Infrastructura verde albastră” propusă integrează topografia, hidrologia și infrastructura existentă, oferind astfel perspective deschise spre viitor ca răspunsuri sustenabile la evenimentele climatice extreme.
Este de remarcat în mod special propunerea plantării pe trei rânduri a copacilor pe strada Unirii unde, de-a lungul aliniamentelor exterioare, sunt integrate de „grădini de ploaie”, ceea ce contribuie substanțial atât la funcționarea ecologică cât și la identitatea vizuală a locului.” -aprecierea Juriului
TULCEA CENTRAL AREA
The centre of a city assembles the many stories that shape an identity-laden urban fabric without which a sense of belonging to the city cannot exist. To tie these stories to a place, our intervention carves out key spatial elements, defining a main square and its connection to the Danube waterfront through a dedicated pedestrian axis. This seeks to correct what was the strategic error of the post-war urban planning era namely placing the civic (political) centre at a distance from the river.
The project also re-establishes a structuring axis oriented toward the Danube, intended to support the multiple activities typical of a city centre — much like what Regina Elisabeta Street represented in the interwar period — a space for both strolling and socializing. These clearly defined spatialities are created using new alignments of climate-resilient trees (Fraxinus angustifolia and Gleditsia triacanthos), a controlled rhythm of street lighting, and limestone paving sourced from local quarries (Bașchioi or Babadag).
The main square only holds the official identity symbol, the statue of Mircea cel Bătrân, while the remaining unoccupied space remains open and versatile for future civic uses: festivals and concerts, sporting events, seasonal fairs, or even political rallies and contestations. From this square, the pedestrian axis leads to the Danube riverfront, punctuated by rows of trees and lighting elements, flanked on both sides by blue-green corridors offering pleasant shade and humidity during hot summer days.
This pedestrian path echoes the rhythm of the existing portico on the eastern side, which in its turn recalls the rhythm of the old bazaar meandering “between the columns.” The intersection with Progresului Street — formerly St. Nicholas Street — is marked by a cobblestone pavement, a clear invitation to cross the two passageways that lead toward the city’s historic areas.
At the end of this structuring axis, the presence of the Danube is announced by a fountain with a water volume visible from a distance. The level difference between Isaccea Street and the flood wall is resolved through a gentle ramp, adjacent to a smooth stream of water, which — along with the natural shade — forms a small plaza opening to the existing park. At the end of the slope, an esplanade opens toward the Danube. The brass band’s pavilion will be relocated here; also, a long limestone bench will be placed above the flowing water of one of the three fountains — a faded memory of the old fountains once common across the Dobrogea plateau.
Beyond these important spatial interventions, the proposal also aims to systematically re-naturalize the central area, in line with a broader flood resilience strategy envisioned at the scale of the entire city. Within this new renaturalized territory — shaded and interwoven with multiple pedestrian paths — the existing eight limestone statues will be carefully placed and two mosaic walls located on Babadag and Păcii Streets will also be highlighted. Additionally, a small square is proposed to mark a new city monument: Tulcea’s Kilometer 0.
We believe that these gestures contribute to the creation of a new, strongly identifiable character for the central area — one that is inseparably tied to the subtle yet ever-present proximity of the Danube.
FLOOD RESILIENCE STRATEGY
In the last three years, Tulcea has experienced at least five major flood events caused by brief but intense storms that have largely affected the low-lying city center (“Ceair”) — most visibly on Unirii Street and at the intersection near Hotel Delta.
We believe that a sustainable, long-lasting solution cannot focus solely on local measures for the central area, but must instead be integrated into a broader citywide strategy. This approach should work with the city’s topography and existing urban fabric: by slowing down stormwater flow in uphill areas through various blue-green solutions, the load on the existing sewer network in the lower parts of the city can be significantly reduced — and, most importantly, anticipated. Therefore, we propose a citywide strategy that can be gradually developed over time, part of which could already be implemented as a pilot project during the rehabilitation of the central area.
The main cause of the repeated flooding in Tulcea is the speed at which stormwater runoff descends the city’s slopes, quickly accumulating at the lowest point — specifically around the Hotel Delta roundabout, where most major avenues converge.
Beyond the city’s natural topography, the issue is also compounded by the street design itself: streets follow a standard profile with impervious (mostly asphalt-covered) traffic lanes set lower than adjacent sidewalks or green spaces, effectively acting as channels that accelerate runoff downslope.
A deeper, systemic cause of poor stormwater retention across the city is the degraded condition of the soil: either heavily compacted after decades of coverage with bituminous materials, or depleted of key nutrients needed to maintain porosity, especially in public green spaces lacking coordinated maintenance strategies.
Alongside these general factors, we have identified specific features of the urban fabric and green space network that directly influence Tulcea’s stormwater response and are closely tied to the city’s historical evolution.
On the one hand, most of the avenues surrounding Mahmudiei Hill, rebuilt during the urban restructuring of the socialist period, feature mature tree alignments that help absorb runoff from higher elevations.
On the other hand, two large low-density areas that still preserve the pre-war urban fabric — Eroilor Neighbourhood and Morilor Plateau — consist of narrow, steep streets lacking public plantings. Most of the potentially absorbent vegetation there is located in private gardens, fenced off by impervious barriers. This leads to significant water accumulation at the base of these areas, particularly around Buna Vestire and the northern part of Pacii Street.
Our strategy proposes a new blue-green network that responds to these local characteristics, combining existing and new detention areas connected by planted corridors.
Along the main avenues around Mahmudiei Hill (Babadag, Corneliu Gavrilov, and southern Pacii Street), we propose creating blue-green corridors ■ by formally integrating the mature tree alignments into the street profile, after evaluating their tolerance to temporary flooding. Instead of allowing stormwater to rush straight down the street, it could be diverted towards the lateral tree rows using speed bumps and guided into the planted areas through cuts in the existing concrete curbs. At the same time, the filtration and absorption capacity of the soil should be improved through decompaction and phytoremediation-focused plantings.
In addition, existing public parking areas along these avenues could be transformed into green parking lots ■ by integrating perimeter bioswales that help filter pollutants generated by vehicles.
In the uphill areas of Eroilor Neighbourhood and Morilor Plateau, a more substantial intervention is possible: transforming residual, unused spaces such as narrow intersections and roundabouts into raingardens ■ after thorough decompaction and soil phytoremediation. These raingardens would be sized to detain water for up to 12 hours before gradually filtering it into the subsoil, and would be set lower than the roadway so runoff can flow easily into them.
This network of raingardens could function like a cascade, with overflow guided further downslope by new tree trenches ■ added along existing streets. In Eroilor Neighbourhood, the current orthogonal one-way street grid makes it possible to add tree trenches on one side, combined with side-street parking. On Morilor Plateau, the tree trenches would mainly run perpendicular to the slope along two main streets — Nicolae Balcescu and Avram Iancu — which could be reconfigured into paired one-way lanes.
