15 Years of Urban Education in Romania

Abstract

Traditionally, urban education in Romania has been part of architectural education. A first distinctive planning department has been created in the early '40s in the Faculty of Architecture. Planning education developed later on within the Institute of Architecture and Systematization "Ion Mincu" in Bucharest, as an important component of the syllabus. A significant change occurred, after the fall of the communist regime, in 1997, when a Faculty of Urbanism was set up in the same Institute of Architecture - which became later on the University of Architecture and Urbanism. Setting up of a separate faculty represented a step forward towards a more profound specialisation and diversification of education in urban planning. However, strong connections with architectural education were preserved through a number of common classes, projects and methodological approaches. Since 2005 the Faculty of Urbanism shifted to Bologna system, by developing distinctive bachelor (1st cycle) and master (2nd cycle) programmes. Recently, there have been established a number of 6 professional competencies for 1st cycle programmes among which urban and landscape design. The paper is aiming to presenting the evolution urban education in Romania, with a clear focus on the new system established 15 years ago, analysing its main characteristics and investigating its connections with the architectural education and connected fields.