Peri-Urban Landscapes of Timișoara: Memory, Identity, and Transitional Regeneration

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.20262612278

Keywords:

Peri-Urban Landscape, Memory and Identity, Rurban Transformation, Third Landscape, Minimal Intervention, Urban Regeneration

Abstract

In the socio-territorial context of post-industrial transitions and uneven development, the peri-urban fringes of Romanian cities such as Timișoara contain fragile, often-abandoned spaces. These interstitial territories—former farmland, brownfields, ecological patches, and degraded heritage zones—are marginalized in planning, yet hold latent cultural, ecological, and symbolic value. This paper examines how memory embedded in material, visual, and ecological fragments can catalyze new spatial practices that contest conventional urban expansion, proposing reinterpretation, occupation, and minimal intervention in line with the European Landscape Convention and the “third landscape”. Through the case of Timișoara’s metropolitan fringe, the study highlights tensions between speculative suburbanization and symbolic re-appropriation, analyzing peri-urban areas as “spaces in motion” shaped by memory and identity. Using a multidisciplinary methodology - spatial analysis, archival mapping, photography, and participatory observation - it proposes strategies to transform overlooked spaces into drivers of resilience, advocating for planning frameworks that value continuity, ordinary heritage, and cultural landscape evolution.

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Author Biographies

  • Titus Gabriel Almajan, West University of Timişoara, University of Zaragoza, Ayuntamiento del Municipio de Timișoara

    Titus Gabriel Almăjan (b. 1977) is Chief Architect of the Municipality of Timișoara, Romania, and PhD researcher at the West University of Timișoara and the University of Zaragoza. His doctoral work examines the dynamics of post-communist urban agglomerations, focusing on socio-territorial transformations, migration, and the influence of European policies and emerging technologies on sustainable metropolitan development. Trained as an architect and certified urban planner, Almăjan brings over twenty years of professional experience in architectural and urban design, planning regulation, and judicial expertise. His current research bridges urban geography, planning, sociology, and public administration to develop hybrid tools for metropolitan governance and urban renewal. 

  • Nicolae Popa, West University of Timişoara

    Nicolae Popa is full Professor of Geography at the West University of Timisoara, Director of the CDR-START Research Center and of the Laboratory of Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning within the Institute for Advanced Environmental Research (ICAM). Since 2009, he supervised 19 doctoral theses, of which 7 in international co-supervision, with the universities of Angers, Lyon 2, Castellon, Valencia, Zaragoza and Turin. Since 2017, he is associate member of the IIDL Doctoral school of the Universities of Valencia and Castellon. He has carried out 46 research and development projects in social and political geography, territorial identities, spatial development and cross-border cooperation. He has led several development strategies of Romanian cites, to meet the needs of the population and economy. Currently, his research focuses on cultural creative industries, circular economy, tourism, urban planning and regeneration. He has published 13 books and 91 scientific articles, as a sole author or in collaboration.

  • Carlos López-Escolano, University of Zaragoza

    Carlos López-Escolano (Zaragoza, 9 June 1987) holds a degree in Geography (2010) and a PhD in Territorial and Environmental Management (2017) from the University of Zaragoza. He has completed pre-doctoral research stays (Université de Toulouse-Jean Jaurès, France, 2014-2015) and postdoctoral research stays (West University of Timisoara, Romania, 2025). Since May 2023, he has been a Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Zaragoza, where he coordinates the Master's Degree in Territory and Environment Planning and Management. Some of his publications include: Cities, 145 and 155 (2024); Journal of Rural Studies, 111 (2024) and 103 (2023); Revista de Urbanismo, 46 (2022); Ciudades, 25 (2022) and 28 (2025); Sustainability, 14(14) (2022); Ciudad y Territorio. Estudios Territoriales, 50(197) (2018); Eure, 44(132) (2018); Journal of Transport Geography, 58 (2017); Journal of Maps, 13(1) (2017).

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Published

2026-06-30

Issue

No. 26 (2026): Memory, design and landscape construction

Section

Topic papers

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Copyright (c) 2026 Titus Gabriel Almajan, Nicolae Popa, Carlos López-Escolano

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Almajan, T. G., Popa, N., & López-Escolano, C. (2026). Peri-Urban Landscapes of Timișoara: Memory, Identity, and Transitional Regeneration. ZARCH. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture and Urbanism, 26, 78-93. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.20262612278