The UNINVITED – Bucharest Architecture Annual
The UNINVITED exhibition at the 2023 Architecture Annual focused on accessibility, inclusion, and the diverse possible perspectives on disability as temporary, contextual and permanent through six video interviews. Curated by architects Iris Popescu and Mihaela Șerban, the installation explored diverse perspectives on the city’s relationship with these themes.
120 Hours of Community Service – Workshop and Public Space Analysis
The project involved mapping four public spaces in Sector 2, resulting in detailed urban assessments, moodboards, and recommendations for improving these areas. Community input was gathered through consultations and surveys, ensuring that local perspectives were included. This initiative was a collaborative effort between multiple organizations and institutions, presented as part of the 2021 Bucharest Architecture Annual.
SenseAbility
A long-term AMAIS initiative which aims to create a socio-cultural platform, a meeting place between able-bodied people and those with disabilities. The initiative aims to identify existing spaces that could offer a rich sensory experience and creates a proper context in which these characteristics are amplified while generating an inclusive context of interaction.
Inclusive Waterfront on the Danube
Mahmudia, a commune on the edge of the Danube Delta, is attracting increasing tourism, prompting the Local Council to develop the Danube bank into an inclusive public space for both locals and visitors. The project, created through community consultations, focus groups, and feedback sessions, resulted in an accessible infrastructure featuring the Mineral Park, the Communal Promenade, and the Communal Garden. The design prioritizes accessibility, circulation, and orientation, with ongoing assessments planned to ensure ease of use and accessibility for all.
A Place for Us
In Bucharest, public space is primarily dedicated to vehicles rather than pedestrians, causing tensions between drivers and pedestrians and prompting inventive ways to claim space due to a lack of action from authorities. There is a growing movement advocating for pedestrian prioritization and reclaiming public spaces, but community consensus is needed for progress. A Place for Us is an initiative using a simple bench installation during Street Delivery 2020 to reclaim a pedestrian area, highlighting the need for public spaces that foster social interaction and long-term community benefits
PopUP Răspiua – Inclusive, Mobile Playground
PopUP Răspiua, part of the Răspiua initiative, is a mobile, inclusive play installation designed to connect able-bodied children and those with disabilities. Featuring geometrical, modular designs that stimulate imagination and sensory perception, it supports cognitive and social development.
The UNINVITED
The UNINVITED is an AMAIS project that involves a series of installations and exhibitions aimed at exploring and challenging society’s perspective on accessibility, inclusion, and disability.
La Firul Ierbii Community Centre
The La Firul Ierbii/Grassroots project creates a public, well-equipped and inclusive civic space for city and neighborhood interaction. It aims to evolve into a local civic forum, fostering community engagement.
Empathy Retreat
During 25-29th of August 2022, we organised the Empathy Retreat in Sibiu, an intersectional research project that brought together 32 people from different social and professional categories: architects, urban planners, landscape architects, expert citizens, local councillors from city halls, activists, all of them from the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, or with visual, locomotor or hearing disabilities, neurodivergent and (temporarily) able-bodied people.
Inclusive dialogue is the first step for accessibility to become a priority in the design and development of public or private spaces. The goal of the retreat is to challenge individual perspectives on human diversity and how they define our relationship with the environment.