Two centenary houses in Bucharest make way for a 6-storey building. How it looks, in the documents, “The right of the owner” against “Their disappearance is a great loss”.
Centennial housesPhoto: Hotnews
Near Mihai Viteazul College, a historical monument, on Matei Voievod street 11-13, two centenary houses are about to be demolished, in exchange for a 6-storey building, which will preserve the facade of one of the houses.
The buildings are valuable, say the architects consulted by HotNews.ro. But the right of the owner is, in turn, sacred, says the City Hall of Sector 2.
One of the houses appears as being in the Carol protected area, on the plans posted on the website of the Capital City Hall, but the developer came with a paper from the Ion Mincu University, in which it is certified that the plot was wrongly included in the protected area. The document from the Faculty of Architecture, which denies the status of a protected area, is also confirmed by the mayor of Sector 2, Radu Mihaiu. what is the story
The company Matei Voievod Development SRL makes the block
Last year, on November 20, the Local Council of Sector 2 approved a Detailed Urban Plan allowing the building of a block with two basements, a ground floor and 6 floors instead of houses, the facade of the oldest building being preserved. Before entering the City Council, the City Hall of Sector 2 gave a favorable opinion to the project.
“The proposal to carry out demolition works of existing buildings C2, C3, C4 and C6 (no annexes), restoration and consolidation with the partial integration of the body C 1 completed at the end of the century was approved. XIX, the beginning of the century. XX, (no. the oldest building) its expansion and overstory resulting in a residential complex P+4E + E5R+E6R (provided with two basements)”, it is shown in the annexes of the Detailed Urban Plan.
From the plans shown, it can be seen that only the facade is preserved from the old building, and the 6-story block is being built inside it.
The plots on which the two houses are built were merged and the result was a plot of about 1600 square meters, according to the land deed extract obtained by HotNews.ro. The real estate developer is MATEI VOIEVOD DEVELOPMENT SRL
On the website, the area is “protected”, in the documents, it is “unprotected”
On the plans on the website of the Capital City Hall, the plot from no. 11 appears as being in the Carol protected area. On the documents approved by Sector 2, however, it does not appear that the plot is in a protected area but in a mixed area, which does not have protection status.
The document can be read HERE.
The difference between “protected” and “unprotected” is made on two levels. First, in protected areas, heritage must be preserved. Then, in protected areas, building permits are issued by the Capital City Hall, not by the sectors.
The Carol protected area has a maximum degree of protection: the architectural – urbanistic, historical and natural environment values are protected in their entirety: the street layout, the built background, the urban character and value; interventions that preserve and enhance existing values are permitted.
I contacted the mayor of Sector 2, Radu Mihaiu, to ask why the City Hall approved this project and whether it gave the demolition and construction permits.
Mayor Mihaiu: “It’s their legal right”
“The owners wanted to demolish and build, we told them in the town planning certificate that for demolition and construction they need a permit from Monuments and they have to make a Detailed Urban Plan (PUD). The owners made a PUD and this PUD was voted on in November by the District Local Council. I have no way not to give PUD, it is their legal right, it is a decision of opportunity. USR voted against the project in the City Council. The town hall gave approval for the PUD because legally the owners have the right to do that”, said the mayor Radu Mihaiu for HotNews.ro.
The mayor says, however, that he did not issue the demolition and construction permits. Asked if he will still agree to the demolition of over 100-year-old houses, the mayor says he will respect the law.
“If they present everything that is needed, we will have no choice but to comply with the law. It is their right to ask, it is the obligation of the City Hall to say what the conditions are for this to happen. The owners have not submitted the documents for the building and demolition permit. I don’t think that the buildings deserve to be demolished, but I think that the owner has a higher quality in deciding on his property, of course, respecting all the laws in force and the urban planning documents in force. The PUG allows him to build P+6 there and he has that PUD that was voted”, explained Mihaiu.
How did you get to “unprotected”
Asked why on the website of the Capital City Hall the plot at number 11 appears as being in the Carol Protected area, and in the urban planning documentation approved by Sector 2 this is not specified, the mayor says that the developer came with a paper certifying that the plot it’s not actually in the protected area.
“It’s an error when gluing the boards in the Carol protected area. This bug has been documented for 2 years. In the first phase, the Sector 2 City Hall requested clarification from the General City Hall (whether the address of Matei Voievod 11 is located in the Carol Protected Area or not). The General City Hall responded with guidance to the designer of the plans, the Ion Mincu University of Architecture. The university replied that it was indeed an error when gluing the boards, and that the building at Matei Voievod 11 is not in the Carol protected area. Under these conditions, the competence to issue the building permit, respectively to draw up the PUD, lies with the City Hall of sector 2”, explained Radu Mihaiu.
What heritage specialists say: “Their disappearance is a great loss”
Raluca Munteanu, an architect specializing in the preservation of built heritage, is of the opinion that the buildings on 11-13 Matei Voievod street are valuable and must be preserved.
“Both buildings that are proposed for demolition (regardless of the wording like extension for restoration, demolition is in reality) are specific to Bucharest and the neighborhood in which they are located. Their value lies in their scale, spatial organization and relationship with the existing fabric, but above all the architectural and aesthetic coherence”, explained Raluca Munteanu.
“Their disappearance is a great loss, even if the protection conferred by a protected area is invoked. The “unprotected” Bucharest must not be a jungle that loses its character, coherence and history. All areas should be treated with care and respect for the existing built stock, and the modernization should take into account the value, at least of the context and atmosphere, of the old buildings. The proximity of the Mihai Viteazul National College should be sufficient in this case to request an adequate renovation of the two buildings, not the demolition and insertion of a massive volume, oversized and with questionable architecture”, believes the architect.
Architect Raluca Munteanu invokes the General Council
It says that the plot at number 11 is part of the protected area, and the correction cannot be made without the approval of the General Council.
“At least one of the lots is in a protected area. If the boundary of the area is erroneous, this correction cannot be made without the approval of the General Council, which I do not know exists. The more that there is this lack of clarity, the project should be analyzed by the General City Hall, or at least there should be a point of view. The fragmented administration of the city once again shows its limits and absurdities. The whole city needs protection against urban exaggerations and abuses, explained Raluca Munteanu.
Bâlici, president of the Order of Architects: “We are systematically destroying the city”
I also spoke with Ștefan Bâlici, the president of the Romanian Order of Architects.
“What I can say in principle is that demolition must be the last option after all other options have been exhausted, which means conservation, reuse, transformation, possibly expansion”, believes Bâlici.
“The reasons are numerous, starting from the cultural ones, which relate to the identity and specificity of our living environment, and reaching the very practical ones, related to the climate and ecological crisis in which we find ourselves. And, returning to the historic city, it is not only built of exceptional buildings, historical monuments, palaces, churches and other buildings with a high impact on the quality of the built environment. The historical city is made, first of all, from every individual atom, from every building, or we systematically destroy it, not only in Bucharest, but also in other parts of the country, accepting house by house, to undervalue them, to devalue them and then say, yes, they are not worth keeping, we destroy them. It is a completely wrong attitude”, explained Ștefan Bâlici.
Who is the real estate developer?
According to the panel displayed on the fence of the buildings, the developer is Matei Voievod Development.
According to Termene.ro, the company was founded in February 2021, and in 2023 it had a loss of RON 63,804. According to the cited source, the shareholding is as follows:
- TOP MIND SRL 60%
- AROA CAPITAL INVEST SRL 25%
- DINSTACON GROUP CONSTRUCT SRL 15 %
- AROA CAPITAL INVEST has Andrei Robert Alexandru as a shareholder, and DINSTACON GROUP CONSTRUCT SRL has Stan Cătălin Silviu as a shareholder.
The two have several real estate businesses together.
In the period 2016-2020, Andrei Robert Alexandru was local councilor Sector 2 on behalf of ALDE, being also vice-president of ALDE Sector 2, according to the declaration of interests submitted at the end of the mandate, in 2020.
Andrei Robert Alexandru’s 2020 declaration of interests can be read HERE.
Tags: politician approval build block flats site #100yearold houses
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