Bistrița set to connect people, places, and nature – A glimpse into the B-CONNECT project

Founded in the 12th century, Bistrița in Romania rose to prominence in the 14th century as a major trading centre due to its strategic location along trade routes, as well as its bustling markets and annual fair. Situated at the foot of the Bargau Mountains, near the Borgo Pass, which connects the Transylvania region to Bucovina, the town of Bistrița is one of the oldest in the region. As a result of its rich history, Bistrița's urban structure reflects a blend of medieval charm and modern expansion, featuring a well-preserved old town with narrow cobbled streets, and a network of compact neighbourhoods that radiate outwards.

Bistrița is currently undergoing a transformative shift toward sustainable urban development through targeted mobility and greening initiatives. Despite these positive developments, the city continues to face significant challenges. Air pollution remains a major concern, with NO₂ and O₃ levels more than doubling between 2016 and 2020, largely due to heavy traffic and emissions from nearby industrial activities. Bistrița's compact urban structure and limited space for greenery make it especially vulnerable to rising summer temperatures. Although the city has seen a 30% increase in built-up area since 2006, green infrastructure and environmental monitoring have not kept pace.

In an effort to address air pollution, car dependency, heat stress and biodiversity loss, B-CONNECT supports a vast array of small-scale interventions but with valuable impact and high upscaling potential. These will pop up everywhere in Bistrița — in peripheral collective housing neighbourhoods, in the historic city centre, and in key public spaces that are either degraded or suffer from poor air quality. They will also be very varied.

A tactical urbanism approach and biophilic design are central to the B-CONNECT solutions. At the heart of the project are temporary, citizen-led, small-scale, and low-cost interventions that can effectively contribute to the improvement of public spaces and inform longer-term decisions.

Nicolae Chirleșan, Project Manager of B-CONNECT, emphasised the project's innovative and people-centred nature: “B-CONNECT is unique in its approach because it implements innovative solutions based on modern technologies to improve and maintain a natural environment resilient to climate change, focusing on three main ideas - connecting people to people, people to places and people to nature. Although Bistrița municipality has a track record in the area of implementing projects with such objectives, this is the first and only one in its approach and citizen involvement.”

In response to the ambitious scope and complexity of the project, Bistrița has put together a particularly robust interdisciplinary partnership, composing of four universities, one IT company, an urban planning consultancy and two NGOs.

Biophilic cities represent urban areas and communities that put nature first in their planning, management and design. In principle it means actions and initiatives that bring nature closer to citizens, and use nature for solving challenges such as heat island effect, urban landscape regeneration and derelict sites transformation.

Biophilic-oriented urban actions, as promoted by B-CONNECT, integrates natural elements into the built environment to enhance human well-being, support biodiversity, and enhance urban resilience. The ambition of Bistrița is to become the first biophilic city in Romania.

As the most innovative element of the project's greening action, Bistrița is making a bold move to deploy a network of mobile hydroponic towers in the historic city centre, on paved schoolyards, and in pollution hotspots — marking a first-of-its-kind approach in Romania. These vertical farming systems will soon be sprouting up across the city in a large-scale effort to improve air quality, and thermal comfort, or to promote urban wellbeing.

Traditionally used indoors, hydroponic towers are now being brought outdoors into Bistrița’s public spaces to test their potential in a real urban environment. Between 50 and 100 units will be installed in various locations throughout the city, where their effects will be closely monitored.

With Bistrița’s dense urban fabric offering little room for traditional green infrastructure, these vertical gardens offer a space-saving solution. Their compact, mobile design allows them to be relocated as needed and even moved indoors during the winter months to public institutions like schools—ensuring that plants remain protected from natural elements, and harnessing their educational potential in biology and ecology or environmental science lessons in support of local teachers.

Most of the towers will help reduce residents' exposure to urban air pollution in their direct vicinity. Others will assist in cooling during hot summer days through providing shade. Beyond their environmental benefits, the hydroponic towers are expected to play a broader social role, as several will serve as green hubs for community interaction.

Bistrița will also experiment with a modular green wall design on the exterior of the schools. The project focuses on the cost-effective implementation of a modular green wall that is adapted to the local environmental context. The 150-square-meter green wall will be developed in collaboration with students and teachers.

Some of the interventions targeting nature-based solutions focus specifically on the regeneration of peripheral collective housing neighbourhoods, which are characterized by deteriorating or neglected urban landscapes. In these urban areas, both smaller and somewhat larger sites will be re-greened. Larger sites of over 1,000 square meters will be turned into leisure or social spaces using diverse nature-based solutions, such as pollinator-friendly plantings, drought-tolerant greenery and climate shelters. B-CONNECT also supports experimentation with biophilic solutions in a neglected green mobility corridor and along the Bistrița River.

These more permanent interventions will be effectively complemented by temporary solutions, which are in line with pure tactical urbanism principles. An unused plot of land will be planted in just one day through a collective planting event involving local residents, a seed-bomb tossing event will be organised, and the historic centre of Bistrița will be turned temporally into a green pedestrian area.

Bistrița’s greening initiatives will be supported by a range of cutting-edge digital tools. At the core of this effort is the development of a comprehensive digital infrastructure called the B(reeze) Platform, designed to enable real-time environmental monitoring and assess the impact of tactical urbanism interventions—especially the effects of hydroponic towers on air quality.

As part of the project, 25 fixed sensors will be installed across the city to monitor air quality and meteorological conditions. Additionally, 100 mobile sensors will collect data on the move, while local residents will be encouraged to assemble and pilot DIY air quality kits.

Data gathered from fixed and mobile sensors, DIY kits, and traffic counters will feed into B(reeze)Net, a GIS-based component of the platform. The B(reeze)Net platform will give the public access to live environmental data, encouraging more environmentally friendly behaviour. The other component of the platform, B(reeze)Flow, offers residents an opportunity to provide feedback on urban climate and mobility issues.

To further incentivise community engagement, a digital token-based reward system will be launched. Citizens will earn rewards for choosing sustainable modes of transport, participating in planting events, co-creation activities, sensor-based crowdsourcing, or engaging actively with the B(reeze)Flow platform. According to the plans, tokens earned can be traded for benefits such as secure bike parking, composting kits, household hydroponic towers, or outdoor recreational experiences.

Bistrița is currently facing challenges due to a high level of motorization, which contributes to elevated concentrations of atmospheric pollutants. To address this, B-CONNECT introduces a series of innovative solutions aimed at reducing car dependency and alleviating traffic congestion.

As part of these efforts, LED panels will be installed in key areas across the city. These panels will display real-time information on air quality and traffic conditions, supporting traffic calming and rerouting. The system will be powered by traffic data collected through the B(reeze) Platform.

Probably the most iconic mobility-related interventions of B-CONNECT focuses on promoting bicycle use. While Bistrița has recently made significant progress in soft mobility—most notably with the inauguration of a 36 km-long bike lane network—cycling uptake remains lower than expected. A major barrier appears to be the lack of secure bike storage. Especially in neighbourhoods with multi-storey apartment blocks without elevators, for young people, the elderly, and women, moving bikes in and out of apartments can be particularly difficult.

To address this, Smart Mobility Hubs will be installed in peripheral neighbourhoods. These hubs will be created by converting shipping containers into secure bike storage facilities, equipped with green roofs, photovoltaic panels and occasionally small repair stations. The modular design will allow easy replication, and remanufacturing. Containers that can also be connected to increase capacity will accommodate 14 to 40 bike racks.

The use of Smart Mobility Hubs will be incentivized by the token-based reward system. Beyond providing secure bike storage, the hubs are intended to function as community spaces, fostering social cohesion, as they will be placed adjacent to sites newly greened by B-CONNECT.

In a further step toward innovation, a solar-powered autonomous vehicle prototype will be tested for cleaning bike lanes. Bistrița aims to become the first Romanian city to pilot autonomous vehicles in a real urban environment.

Participatory and multi-stakeholder approaches, and community-oriented actions are at the heart of B-CONNECT. Citizens are directly involved in every stage of the project—whether related to greening, mobility, or digital solutions.

Bistrița places strong emphasis on co-creation, focusing on co-assessment, co-design, and co-implementation through a wide range of workshops and community events across the city. Under B-CONNECT, specific collaboration frameworks are established, such as the Citizen Observatory Platform that enables residents to engage in measurements with mobile sensors. Co-management plans will be developed with local communities for the Smart Mobility Hubs. Citizens are also actively involved in planting events and greening actions. An Urban Resilience Plan—shaped through co-creation workshops—will ensure the long-term impact of B-CONNECT.

One of the emblematic actions of the project is rooted in history. Bistrița was fortified between the 14th and 15th centuries with 18 guild towers, built to protect its economic activities from frequent external threats. Of these, only the Coopers' Tower still stands today. Inspired by the strategic role that guilds once played in the life of the town, New Eco-Guilds will be created in Bistrița for harnessing local talents in sustainability and innovation. Medieval guilds were responsible for transmitting specialised knowledge from one generation to the next through practical training in an apprenticeship system. Much like traditional guilds, the newly established Eco-Guilds will draw upon skills development and the importance of learning by doing. Three small mobile structures will be built, housing Eco-Guilds and will be placed in schoolyards. Each of the three Eco-Guilds will focus on a different thematic area covered by the project: urban greening; IT and robotics; and art, design, and placemaking.

The combination of all these actions has huge transformational potential, bringing about significant changes in Bistrița’s urban fabric and in the mindset of its residents.