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Corner rendering: the tall body with its pale ribbed facade and deep loggias, the terraces under the white steel frame to the right, and a glazed commercial ground floor at the base
Residential · MixedYear — 2026–In progressStatus — In progressLocation — Valea Cascadelor Street, Sector 6, Bucharest, Romania
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Valea Cascadelor — Mixed-use residential building, Bucharest

The building stands on Valea Cascadelor, in the west of Bucharest, in an area that is changing fast: industrial plots and vacant land turning, one by one, into built street fronts. It occupies a corner and treats its two frontages differently — one urban and exposed, the other facing the lower fabric behind.

A volume that steps down to its neighbours

The building takes its height at the corner and steps down from there. The upper levels are set back in succession, and those setbacks become habitable terraces rather than the by-product of a planning requirement. The result is a silhouette that does not stop abruptly but fades towards the lower buildings nearby.

The boulevard facade: a full-height grid of deep loggias, climbing plants on the white frame of the set-back terraces and a glazed ground floor beneath a green band
Fig. 01
The white frame in front of the terraces is a support for planting: it shades in summer and lets light through in winter.
The building seen from the intersection, among the area's new blocks; the corner rises above the commercial ground floor, with warm reveals to the glazed openingsThe main facade seen frontally: the volume steps back towards the upper levels, with planted terraces and a commercial ground floor recessed under the overhang
Fig. 02–03
02The depth of the loggias is sized for shading, not only to obtain an outdoor space.03The setbacks at the upper levels free up terraces and reduce the sense of mass from the street.

Deep loggias, not added balconies

The facade is a grid of square openings in which the balcony sits inside the volume: every apartment gets a deep loggia, protected from the sun and from the street. Warm timber reveals mark the openings and give scale to the vertical, ribbed texture of the facade. The shading comes from the geometry, not from elements added afterwards.

Corner detail sketch: the vertical ribbed cladding, the recessed loggia and the warm timber reveal framing the opening
Fig. 04
The warm reveals mark the openings and give scale to the ribbed facade.

Planting is part of the building

In front of the set-back terraces, a white steel frame carries climbing plants and continues the line of the facade where the volume has stepped away. The planters are continuous and built into the parapet, so the greenery belongs to the building rather than to each resident's own arrangement. In summer it filters the light; in winter it lets it through.

Hand-drawn axonometric sketch: the long body with loggias and planted terraces, the taller corner body and the active ground floor, among trees
Fig. 05
The concept sketch: the relationship between the long body, the taller corner and the ground floor that ties the building to the pavement.

The ground floor belongs to the street

The ground floor is recessed under the overhang of the levels above and fully glazed, with shops and services that activate the pavement. Residential access is separate and discreet, and parking goes underground so the street front stays clear. The widened pavement, the trees and the street furniture are part of the project, not an afterthought.

Through deep loggias, successive setbacks and a base that opens towards the city, the building proposes a way of densifying Bucharest without turning its back on the street.

Detail sketch of two loggia levels: the cantilevered slab, the timber panel, the sliding door and the continuous planter at the parapet
Fig. 06
Each loggia gets a continuous planter, so the greenery does not depend on each resident's own arrangement.
A ground floor that belongs to the street, and a facade that shades itself.
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