Deeper than Density: A Sense of Place in Bucharest
CityMakers: Live · Bucharest · June 11, 2026
Bucharest is changing fast, driven by real estate pressure, climate urgency and the relentless logic of densification. This edition asks what happens to the sense of place when a city is under pressure to grow — and what resilience can mean beyond the technical.
Moving between scales and methods, the conversation explores how Bucharest is being built, rebuilt and repurposed, and what it means to do so with resilience and identity.
Why join this event?
A curated cross-sector conversation: Participants across municipality, practice, industry, academia and civil society — the mix that makes the questions worth asking.
Two real Bucharest projects as anchors We sit inside Grivița 53, a Foundation Awards-recognised theatre, to talk about Pantelimon-Fundeni, a C40 competition site one metro ride away. Ideas tied to specific ground, not abstractions.
Date & Time
18:00-21:00, June 11 2026
Location
Teatrul Grivița 53, Bucharest
Tickets
In-person & Free
Panelists
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Sven Fuchs
Partner, GRAFT Gesellschaft von Architekten
Germany
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Moojin Park
Co-Founder, Office ParkScheerbarth
Germany
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Nils Maevis
Senior Engineer, Buro Happold
Germany
Agenda & Venue
Agenda
17:30 - 18:00 - Arrival
18:00 - 18:30 - Introduction
18:30 - 20:00 - Panel Discussion
from 20:00 - Networking Drinks
About the venue
A community-built theatre and 2017 Holcim Foundation Awards Acknowledgement prize winner — the conversation takes place inside the building it is partly about. Back-Alley Front Stage — Grivița 53 a community-funded theatre that turned a derelict back-of-house into a cultural anchor and seeded a neighbourhood's ambition.
In September 2025, Bucharest witnessed the long-awaited launch of Back-Alley Front Stage – Grivița 53, a bold cultural initiative transforming a once-dilapidated plot in the historic Grivița district. Conceived and championed by Asociația Culturală Grivița 53, the project brings to life the city’s first purpose-built independent theatre in nearly eight decades—redefining a neighbourhood once known as the “Bucharest Montmartre” and renewing its cultural heartbeat.
Registration
RSVP Now
The event is free but RSVP is required
About CityMakers: Live
CityMakers: Live
CityMakers Live is the Holcim Foundation's new city-level convening format. Each edition is hosted in a Foundation-recognised project and brings together the people who shape that city — municipalities, architects and engineers, developers, academia, civil society — for a small-room conversation on a tension that city is actually facing.
The series launches in Bucharest in June 2026, then travels to Barcelona, Hamburg, London and Mexico City over the year.