Zoom-in 1: Engaging local actors in biophilic urban transformation in Bistrița under B-CONNECT

Linking nature and temporary urban solutions

Biophilic tactical urbanism is the practice of implementing small-scale, temporary, and community-driven interventions that incorporate biophilic design principles to strengthen connections between people and nature in urban environments. It combines the speed and low cost of tactical urbanism - such as pop-up parks, temporary green walls, placing trees in movable planters in public squares, or guerilla gardening - with the biophilic design goal of integrating natural elements and systems into the urban fabric.

Biophilic design is an architectural and urban planning approach that seeks to reconnect people with nature within the built environment. Rooted in the concept of biophilia - the innate human tendency to connect with nature - it aims to weave natural elements, patterns, and processes into urban spaces to enhance human health and wellbeing.

Biophilic design principles are typically organised into three broader categories: direct experiences of nature, indirect experiences of nature, and experiences of space and place. Direct experiences involve vegetation, natural light, fresh air, and views of natural landscapes. Indirect experiences include the use of natural materials, biomorphic forms, and representations of nature in artwork. Experiences of space and place draw on the spatial relationship to nature, developing environments that mimic the spatial qualities found in nature, creating a sense of comfort though a balance between openness and shelter. The B-CONNECT project largely focuses on direct experiences of nature, supporting Bistrița’s ambition to become Romania’s first biophilic city.

Biophilic design aligns closely with sustainability and overlaps with nature-based solutions, helping cities adapt to climate change, improve air quality, and reduce biodiversity loss through urban greening. When properly implemented, it fosters a mutually beneficial relationship between people and nature, creating environments that are healthier, more resilient, and inspiring.

To achieve biophilic goals, biophilic tactical urbanism applies low-cost, tactical methods, such as planters with trees, temporary green corridors, parklets in parking spaces, or green façades.

Tactical urbanism itself refers to a set of low-cost, short-term, and community-driven interventions designed to improve urban spaces and inspire long-term change. Emerging from grassroots movements and later embraced by municipalities, it emphasises experimentation and citizen participation as tools for reimagining public space.

A defining feature is its iterative nature. By testing interventions on a small scale, cities can assess their social, environmental, and economic impacts before committing to permanent transformations. Tactical urbanism prioritises co-creation and placemaking, strengthening the relationship between citizens and local authorities.

In recent years, practitioners and researchers have begun integrating biophilic design principles into tactical urbanism initiatives, giving rise to the concept of biophilic tactical urbanism. This emerging approach merges the flexibility and speed of tactical urbanism with the restorative and ecological aims of biophilic design.

Bistrița’s Participatory Approach to Biophilic Tactical Urbanism

Against this backdrop, as Bistrița’s dense urban fabric offers limited space for traditional green infrastructure, B-CONNECT is adopting a biophilic tactical urbanism approach that supports temporary, citizen-led, small-scale, and low-cost interventions to improve public spaces and inform long-term urban decisions. The goal is to integrate natural elements into the built environment to enhance human well-being, support biodiversity, and strengthen urban resilience.

Tactical urbanism offers Bistrița significant flexibility, allowing the city to identify and test the most effective options for future large-scale greening interventions. These temporary actions can achieve broad spatial coverage at low cost, ensuring high project visibility and tangible impact. Their affordability also enables the city to experiment with multiple approaches simultaneously.

Participatory approaches are essential for biophilic tactical urbanism because they place citizens at the centre of re-imagining and reshaping their own urban environments. Through co-creation, local actors help identify meaningful locations, select nature-based solutions that respond to real community needs, and take shared responsibility for maintenance and long-term stewardship. This participatory dimension not only ensures that interventions are context-specific and socially inclusive, but also strengthens the emotional bond between people and urban nature, an underlying goal of biophilic design. Participatory approaches are central to the ambition of Bistrița, ensuring that interventions reflect community needs, local knowledge, and shared ownership. Under B-CONNECT, participation transforms tactical greening from a purely spatial exercise into a process of community building and environmental awareness-raising, making small-scale, temporary interventions a catalyst for systemic urban change. The co-creation process linked to biophilic tactical urbanism is led by Urbasofia, a town and regional planning company, in collaboration with the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, which is responsible for nature-based solutions-driven urban regeneration within the project.

From consultation to co-creation: building together

The B-CONNECT Kick-off event, held in January 2025, already demonstrated this participatory spirit. Co-creation activities linked to biophilic tactical urbanism were launched through three thematic roundtable discussions focused on green walls, regeneration of green pockets, and green and blue-green corridors. A wide range of local actors took part, including housing associations, representatives of the Ministry of Development, local and regional water authorities, environmental NGOs, youth organisations, and the local council of high school students. The discussions helped identify local priorities for pilot activities and collect insights to guide the planning of subsequent co-development phases. Based on feedback from housing associations and building administrators, it was agreed that future co-creation activities should take place directly on-site with direct citizen participation.

April 2025 marked the launch of several participatory activities under B-CONNECT, as the co-creation process moved forward with a series of workshops focused on smaller-scale nature-based solutions.

An Urban Explorer event with high school volunteers supported the identification of potential locations for hydroponic towers, that will be deployed across Bistrița to improve air quality and thermal comfort, or to promote urban wellbeing. Following an introductory training session addressing questions such as ‘what are hydroponic towers?’, or ‘why are they relevant?’, students were divided into groups to explore different areas of the city, taking photos, notes, and environmental measurements such as noise levels and temperature. Their findings will be validated by the project team that will need to consider also the availability of power connections, and data on the level of air pollution accessed from the BreezeNet Platform, which will provide real-time environmental monitoring to assess the impact of tactical greening interventions.

For the regeneration of green pockets and larger multifunctional green spaces in peripheral neighbourhoods with multi-storey apartment buildings, participatory approaches are especially important due to existing land-use tensions. In these areas, deteriorated public green spaces in front of apartment buildings are often partially appropriated and occasionally fenced off by residents, creating conflicts over access and maintenance. These areas often appear neglected due to their overall chaotic layout, while most residents of the surrounding apartment buildings are excluded from using these public green spaces, which have become mosaics of appropriated small gardens. B-CONNECT aims to make these spaces accessible to all nearby residents through an inclusive co-creation process. To prevent disputes, the project actively involves the caretakers of small informal gardens, recognising their local knowledge and attachment to place.

A series of on-site meetings was organised in April, deliberately scheduled in the afternoons to facilitate after-work participation. Green pockets were grouped into six clusters, and six workshops were held over three days. Participants discussed future uses of the spaces, maintenance strategies, and the types of nature-based solutions preferred. Mood boards and sketches helped shape design ideas and visualise potential transformations. To complement these workshops, a questionnaire was launched in June and July to map residents’ perceptions, behaviours, and willingness to contribute to future management.

B-CONNECT also promotes biophilic experimentation in schools. Two educational institutions - the INFOEL Technical High School and the Arts and Architecture High School - are co-developing modular green walls with the municipality. To enable easy replication, different modular systems will be tested, one integrating prefabricated panels, and the other cables or lightweight structures anchored to the façade to support climbing plants. Workshops and site visits engaged teachers and students in discussing educational and aesthetic opportunities, and in identifying optimal locations for installation. As a result, formal cooperation agreements were signed between the schools and the city, and by October 2025, the conceptual designs for the modular green walls had been finalised and validated.

Beyond educational and neighbourhood-level actions, Bistrița is experimenting with green corridors. Greening interventions will be tested along a main urban road and the River Bistrița’s degraded banks. The five experimental plots to be developed along the mobility corridor will include drought-tolerant vegetation, and pollinator-friendly plantations, urban prairies, and small climate shelters. Separate workshops and site visits were held in April to identify suitable locations for these greening actions.

B-CONNECT also embraces citizen-driven tactical greening events, such as Garden-in-a-Day, seed-bombing, temporary pedestrian zones, and open-schoolyard activities, all of which rely heavily on community involvement. The seed-bombing event in September, for instance, was a playful yet educational activity where participants created and dispersed seed balls made of clay, compost, seeds, and water. This was preceded by an Urban Explorer event in which primary school students and representatives of project partners and NGOs identified degraded green areas in the Municipal Park for “bombing.”

As a final outcome of B-CONNECT, Bistrița aims to develop its Urban Resilience Strategy 2050, drawing directly from the tools, methods, and insights tested under the project. A series of three co-creation workshops will support strategy development, focusing on upscaling requirements, collaborative scenarios, and governance mechanisms.

Through B-CONNECT, Bistrița demonstrates how biophilic tactical urbanism, when combined with participatory approaches, can create a framework for inclusive urban transformation. Temporary, small-scale interventions become tools not only for greening the city but also for empowering communities, nurturing environmental responsibility, and informing long-term strategic planning. The lessons from these experiments will feed directly into Bistrița’s Urban Resilience Strategy 2050, ensuring that the city’s evolution towards a biophilic, climate-adaptive, and citizen-centred future continues well beyond the project’s lifetime.