TIMPURI NOI DOCK — Reconnecting Bucharest with its River

Tamina Lolev

In the heart of Bucharest, hidden between office towers, housing blocks and a metro station, the Timpuri Noi dock sat abandoned for four decades. Built in the 1980s during the canalisation of the Dâmbovița, it was never completed — a residual, inaccessible space that became an informal shelter for homeless people, severed from the city it once served as a 19th-century mineral-spring resort.
Through small-scale, reversible interventions, we transformed this stigmatised site into a contemporary, climate-adaptive public space. A universally accessible ramp reconnects the promenade with the water; a timber deck invites rest and gathering; floating pontoons bring people safely to the river's surface. Natural, low-impact materials keep the design flexible, maintainable and open to evolution.
The project is grounded in radical accessibility. Adjacent to Special School No. 3, the dock now hosts water-training for paralympic athletes from Kayak Champions. Parents with strollers, elderly people and persons with disabilities reach the river without barriers. Rather than displacing the vulnerable people who had inhabited the site, we partnered with the Carousel Association to offer them concrete support — proving that authentic urban regeneration excludes no one.
The impact was immediate: a derelict edge became a living place of leisure, sport and community, while reactivating water proximity as a cooling resource against intensifying heatwaves. Awarded the 2025 prize for "Built Architecture / Architecture and Public Space," the dock now functions as a pilot node within the Dâmbovița Apă Dulce program — a green-blue corridor giving the river back to the city, and a replicable model for resilient, inclusive riverfronts.

Project Gallery

Timpuri Noi Dock - aerial view

Before (& after)

(Before &) after

(Before &) after

(Before &) after

General view of the river & the dock

Tamina Lolev RO

https://noddesignlab.ro/, https://nodmakerspace.ro/, https://materlibrary.ro/en/mater/, https://dambovitaapadulce.ro/
Splaiul Unirii 160, sector 4 | 040041 Bucuresti