More than ten years ago, a series of small grassroots actions managed to bring the river Someș closer to the residents of Cluj-Napoca. What started with several protests, mainly concerning green spaces along the river, led in the end to a public competition for a portion of the river. Over time, the project evolved into the Someș Mobility Corridor, a large-scale infrastructure project that proposes a network of pedestrian and cycling routes along the river. The project aims to connect four municipalities, not only in terms of mobility, but also by creating a continuous blue-green corridor. Its development integrates infrastructure interventions with a set of urban planning regulations that will guide future development along the corridor.
The research is focused on the Someș Mobility Corridor while also comparing it with similar initiatives across Europe. The case study is based on a sociological report conducted in the four localities, exploring how communities have perceived the river in the past and how they perceive it now. People relate to the river very differently depending on their personal connection to water, yet there are also some generalized patterns of perceptions across the four localities. The corridor is, seen not only as a mobility link, but also a space of ecological, infrastructural, and social systems.
There are two scales of analysis, a macro scale focused on continuity and connection, and a micro scale that examines different segments of the landscape. The project does not have uniform spatial impacts, resulting in specific focal points of interest. Although the project proposes coherence, it is perceived unevenly along the river. In the end, the project challenges us to think about mobility infrastructure not just in terms of flow, but as a living environment — one that negotiates between movement, memory, and the everyday lives of those who live alongside it.
Bibliography
- Lampartová, I., Schneider, J., and collective. (2016). Rivers in the cities. Mendel University in Brno
- Nijhuis, S., Jauslin, D., & van der Hoeven, F. (2018). Flowscapes: Designing infrastructure as landscape. TU Delft
- Easterling, K. (2014). Extrastatecraft: The power of infrastructure space. Verso.
