Proud of my UrbanizeHub colleagues and especially Samuel Stancu for the past weekend

What happens when you close a street to cars… and don’t replace them with anything?

No stage. No food trucks. No music
Just a car-free street, left open for people.

During the Piațete Libere / Open Squares public consultations in Bucharest’s Sector 2, we tested a simple idea: can a street become public space without being over-programmed?

For two days, part of Sfântul Ștefan Square in Bucharest became a temporary car-free street. At first, it was an urban experiment. Then people started using it. And it became a public space.

Children came with bikes, played football, jumped rope and drew with chalk on the asphalt. Adults stayed to talk, ask questions, visit the exhibition and discuss the future of 10 small public squares in the Armenească – Moșilor – Plantelor area.

Around 500 people passed through the temporary activation. Around 80 joined the public consultations. The online questionnaire gathered 352 responses so far, while piatetelibere.ro recorded over 5,000 interactions.

For us, this is where the New European Bauhaus becomes very concrete: not as an abstract policy reference, but as a way to work with beauty, sustainability and inclusion through real places, real communities and real conversations.

It also connects directly to the climate-neutral transition. Sector 2 is part of the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, NetZeroCitiesEU and projects like this show how climate action can start at street level: with shade, walkability, public space, local identity and less pressure from cars.

The weekend also included civic walks organized by Străzi pentru Oameni, not as classic heritage tours, but as a way to read the neighborhood through streets, public spaces, everyday life and civic participation.

Small public spaces matter. And sometimes, the first step is not to add more things to a street. It is simply to make room.

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