About the “Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism (UAUIM)

Website: www.uauim.ro/en/

UAUIM has coordinated national research partnership projects on the reduction of multi-hazard risks through architecture and urban planning strategies for over 15 years, has organized conferences and workshops, has implemented the lab for emergency architecture and urban planning, has participated through the academic team to a series of prestigious institutional manifestations.

“Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning from Bucharest is the oldest and most important academic institution in this field from Romania. It continues a long tradition of local architectural higher education, the foundation of which is closely linked with the rise of modern Romania and the setting of its new institutional structure and culture, during the second half of the 19th century.

In Romania, the first form of architectural education was legally established in 1864, based on an Act issued by Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Prince of Moldavia and Walachia, as part of the School of Bridges and Roads, Mines and Architecture. However, due to the lack of funds and students, it was closed down shortly after. The first Romanian architects studied mostly in Paris, at Ecole des Beaux-Arts (the first DPLG being Ion Mincu in 1883) and their enthusiastic undertaking lead to the true foundation of a school of architecture in Bucharest. Thus, in 1892 the Romanian Society of Architects set up a private school of architecture under its authority. The Education Reform in 1897 transformed the private school into the National School of Architecture (financed by the government) as part of the School of Fine Arts.

By a decision of the Academic Senate, the name was changed in 1951 to “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning, which is still the current official denomination. This change was closely linked with the broadening of the educational offer after 1990. Thus, two new Departments were added to the old Faculty of Architecture in the last decades: the Faculty of Urban Planning in 1997 and the Faculty of Interior Design in 2003, each of them offering several degree programs.

UAUIM has received in 1995 the RIBA acknowledgement and for the last 15 years has organized award sessions with international juries. It awarded titles of Dr. Honoris Causa (Sir Robert Matthews (USA 1960) / Richard Neutra (USA 1965) / Octav Doicescu (Romania 1980) / Mario Botta (Switzerland 1998) / Vittorio Gregotti (Italy 1999) / Pierre von Meiss (Switzerland 1999) / Francoise Choay (France 1999) / Ascanio Damian (Romania 2000) /Dan Sergiu Hanganu (Canada 2000) / Richard Meyer (USA 2002) / Alvaro Siza y Vieira (Portugal 2005) / Bartholomew Voorsanger (USA 2005) / Kenneth Frampton (USA 2010) / Gaetano Pesce (Italy/USA 2011) / Paulo Mendes da Rocha (Brasil 2011) / Gottfried Böhm (Germany 2012) / Eduardo Souto de Moura (Portugal 2012) / Daniel Libeskind (USA 2013) / Dominique Perrault (France 2013) / Theodore Curtis (USA 2013) / Wolf D. Prix (Austria 2014) / Glenn Murcutt (Australia 2014) / Juhani Pallasmaa (Finland 2014) / Ross Lovegrove (UK 2014)) and has received the highest distinction in the state (at the 140th anniversary of the Romanian Architectural Education System, in 2004. UAUIM has received from the Romania’s presidency the Order “Cultural Merit of Grand Officer” / At the 150th anniversary since establishment, in 2014, our University received the Order “Merit for Education” of Great Officer”, official recognition and of the highest level of the “competence and professionalism showed along time in training new generations of architects, for the contribution to the promotion of the Romanian architecture school nationally and internationally”).