Rivus

Designed in collaboration with IULIUS Company and Atterbury Europe, RIVUS is Romania's largest urban regeneration project, transforming the former Carbochim factory site in Cluj-Napoca into a sustainable, community-shaped mixed-use district. Originally known as the "Meadowland Garden," the site later became an industrial centre that severed a significant stretch of the Someș riverfront from public life. Informed by the public participation of Cluj-Napoca's residents, RIVUS reopens this part of the city and repositions the river as part of daily urban experience rather than its edge.

Spanning more than 14 hectares, the project targets both LEED Platinum and EDGE Advanced certifications, alongside compliance with Romanian NZEB standards. Green facades, rooftop planting, and water management systems that store and cascade rainfall to irrigate the park and reduce river runoff all contribute to its environmental performance. More than 700 trees and 100,000 plants, selected to support local biodiversity and seasonal change across 52,000 m² of green space, are woven throughout the site.

The architectural concept is directly informed by the river. A water-drop geometry forms the basis of the development's spatial organisation, with fluid lines carried through the exterior facade and concentric circular patterns structuring the light-filled public plazas. A terraced building form steps towards the water, drawing the riverside landscape into and onto the building itself. Natural materials, including wood and stone, reinforce the connection to place. UNS and Felixx Landscape Architects and Planners worked together to ensure that park, riverfront, and built form read as a single, continuous landscape rather than separate components.

The project includes a new city park with a riverside boardwalk, terraces, and an amphitheatre, alongside a roof terrace with a Japanese garden for dining, leisure, and rest. Connectivity was a central community priority: the infrastructure programme includes two pedestrian walkways across the Someș, modernised streets, new roundabouts, and bicycle lanes along the site's perimeter. Surrounding streets continue directly into the building as an interior streetscape, preserving the scale and rhythm of the city at ground level. Total investment in mobility and infrastructure reaches €66 million.

With 165,000 m² of leasable area, RIVUS will be Romania's largest urban reconversion project, hosting over 400 stores, more than 30 concept restaurants and coffee shops, coworking spaces, and platforms for local producers. These uses are arranged to sustain activity in the park and along the riverfront throughout the day and across seasons. Cultural and entertainment spaces will occupy two renovated buildings from the original Carbochim factory, established in 1949 and later Romania's largest manufacturer of professional abrasives. The former administrative brick building will be repurposed for coworking and entrepreneurial activity, while the arcade hall will become a cultural venue, grounding the new district in the industrial history of the site.