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Northeast Romanian city of Suceava is targeted to be the site of a pioneering energy independent student campus in an ambitious international project, reports Michael Bird
A 300 million Euro plan to expand Suceava’s university into an energy independent showcase for sustainable buildings in north Romania is looking for corporate sponsorship and EU cash.
The plan includes dormitories, services, lecture spaces and green areas across 30 hectares on farmland which the Ministry of Agriculture has given to the Ministry of Education.
“We want to create a little eco-city,” says Peter Oostveen, a Dutch consultant for one of the pioneers of the project, the Architectural Group.
There are no water or power lines to the land, but the location needs only a road to link it up to the town, as the plan is to make the campus energy independent.
“Sophisticated, revolutionary and energy independent concepts are more likely to gain EU funds,” says Oostveen, whose previous work includes an instrumental role in rehabilitating Romania’s National Museum of Arts.
Now Suceava University is overcrowded. There are around 14,000 students in the town and the university had to turn 800 away in 2008 because there was not enough space for them to learn – the new location will support between 10,000 and 12,000 students with 4,000 living there full-time.
The faculties at the new campus will be suited to the region – including electrical engineering, food production, forestry and animal husbandry.
To be energy independent, the campus plans to use geothermal energy – which pumps water down into the ground, where it heats up, and then pumps it back up in a heat exchange. There will be photovoltaics on the roof to heat hot and cool water - but the location is not an ideal plot on the wind map, so there will be no turbines. Backing up this energy supply will be a biomass plant, generating power from wood chips and rubbish. One obstacle to using solar technology in developing markets is the expense of constructing the panels related to the energy benefits - Oostveen believes the location could be a place for researching cheaper solar panels.
The campus will be constructed from local wood and Oostveen aims to insulate the property with a traditional mortar of mud and straw. The look of the building itself will be less important than the function. “It used to be that architecture would determine the technology inside building – but now that technology determines the architecture,” says Oostveen. The University is linking up with Delft University, Holland and the Architectural University ‘Ion Mincu’ in Bucharest to elaborate the project.
Underground the campus plans a 1,200-seater auditorium, which can be divided up into a lecture, conference or concert hall, cinemas or a theatre. The aim is a multi-purpose space that is in use all day.
The green areas plan to use plants indigenous to the area, because they are suited to the natural environment and this saves on watering costs and waste. This should be a socially self-sufficient space, which will include a kindergarten, surgery and school, which in themselves can become part of the local community.
The new project has the backing of a nucleus of experts, from finance, insurance, architectural and energy companies, many of which are Dutch. So far a pre-feasibility study has been compiled. Now there is a need to draw up a four million Euro feasibility study and business plan. Once this is completed and financing is in place, Oostveen is looking at a five-year construction phase. This means the earliest start date could be 2011.
He is looking at 60 per cent funding from the EU regional development funds. The remaining 40 per cent could be from private parties through either direct sponsorship or private-public partnership schemes, such as paying off a private firm over a 50 year-period to design, build and operate a faculty. Tapping into 180 million Euro from a cash-sensitive EU is a tall order. But Oostveen, a natural optimist, believes even a pioneering ‘country to country arrangement’ may be possible between Romania and at least one other EU nation.
The new campus also hopes to culturally reinvigorate the city and surroundings. There are 120,000 people in Suceava, but no theatre or a cinema, which the new university could provide.
Suceava does not have a concert hall nor an orchestra – however Cernauti, the Ukrainian city with a large Romanian-speaking population, has a philharmonic orchestra which could use the concert space in Suceava. The Ukrainian city is less than 100 km away and linked to Suceava by a transnational road. This could be a chance to encourage cross-border regional development, a theme which impassions the EU.
“Romania can be considered a gateway for Europe to the former silk route,” adds Oostveen. “The Suceava University with its established programmes with Universities in Cernauti and Chisinau could also be a linguistic centre teaching Chinese, Russian and Arabic and become the catalyst for the stimulation of development of trade with Russia and the Black and Caspian Sea areas.”
The Diplomats together with the central and local authorities: prefect of Prahova, Mr.Adrian Dobre, Mayor of Ploieşti, Mr.Andrei Voloşevici, Mayor of Bălţesti, Mr.Radu Ion and project’s sponsors representants: Mr.Andy Dillon, CEO Timken, Mrs.Elena Şerban, CEO Vodafone Romania Foundation, Baumix, Lafarge şi PRAIS Corporate Communications representants, worked voluntarily on the interior site of two homes for underprivileged Roma families. The members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited in Bucharest visited the homes of the beneficiary families from the Bălţeşti village to see their current living conditions.
The event took place in the community development project "One home, one future" developed by Habitat for Humanity Romania and Soros Foundation Romania for three years in Bălţeşti, Prahova and Vînători, Neamt, in order to support and promote actions to help the Roma families living in unsuitable conditions in Romania.
The Ambassadors present at the event, as well as Adrian Ciorna, President of Habitat for Humanity, and, Mona Prisacariu, Project Manager from Soros Foundation stressed the importance of the project for the Roma population with low income and living in poverty conditions.
"This event is an opportunity for us to help this community, which deserves all our support, but which has low income and poor families. This union of forces from the diplomatic environment, business environment, and that of local government is the expression of a large national and international solidarity, "said Adrian Ciorna, President of Habitat for Humanity Romania.
In turn, U.S. Ambassador to Bucharest, H.E. Mr. Mark Gitenstein stressed that the project “A house, A Future” is a joint one between Habitat for Humanity and the Soros Romania Foundation and the Peace Corps, which is conducted by the local government. "Our support given to these families is an emotional experience," said H.E. Mr. Mark Gitenstein.
"I am delighted to be invited here to help build this house, it is a wonderful project. I have done something like this before in Austria, when I was very young, my parents built a house and I helped them a little bit, "said H.E. Mr. Martin Eichtinger, Austrian ambassador to Bucharest.
The Canadian Ambassador to Bucharest was also delighted to have participated in this project, underlining that in his country, Habitat for Humanity has had 50,000 volunteers who helped build 200,000 homes. "When you build a house like this, you break the cycle of poverty and this is very important," said H.E. Mr. Philippe Beaulne.
Mona Prisacariu, on behalf of Soros Foundation, stressed the strong partnership between Soros Romania Foundation and Habitat for Humanity. "It is a very complex project. We are in the first year of activity and we want it to last 3 years. First 5 houses have been already completed in two communities. "said Mona Prisacariu.
"One house, one future" project was undertaken in partnership by Habitat for Humanity and the Soros Foundation in Bălţeşti-Prahova and Vînători-Neamt , and plans to build 48 new homes for disadvantaged families and to qualify 30 Roma people in trades-related construction between 2009 and 2011. The project is supported by the Timken Foundation of Canton, Ohio, Vodafone Romania Foundation and BAUMIX
Habitat for Humanity Romania builds and renovates simple, decent and affordable houses for and with families in need whose future is seriously affected by the conditions in which they live. The materials come from donations and sponsorships, and the construction is done by volunteers with the beneficiary families. So far, over 1,600 families in Romania and 300,000 families in 100 countries benefits of Habitat houses.