My starting point is that most of us here in Bucharest live in apartments planned and built to meet certain needs; and those needs alone. If there is a place were this is an absolute truth, I’m paying it’s bills on a monthly basis.
My building is built in the 80’s pinnacle of Romanian communism, meeting all strict standards and the little opposition left (i figure that people like grandma grew tired of expressing their selves through their assigned apartments by then). So this is the reason why going to other cities you get a feeling of deja vu: they used the same planning for the buildings in order to cut costs. Comfort I, comfort II, comfort III and one room flats mean the same things in all classified ads (I picked this up during a research focused on urban living).
For two years now, I’ve been living by myself in Bucharest, at the top floor of a building that’s as depressing as all the others. It has nothing special, but I’m planning to change that. My grandmother passed it on to me, all upset for not getting to give it one more good cleaning before she passed away.
Even though everything in here is from those standardized era of production, she somehow managed to feel at home. I plan to do the same, documenting the extended process. It will take a while, given the fact that I’m on a budget and have other things to do as well.
