Urban Explorers – Night Session, 2nd Edition
We open the Mantuleasa
Urban Explorers – Night Session, Edition II continued the exploration of Bucharest’s built heritage through the cultural activation of historic houses and spaces in the Mântuleasa neighborhood. For one evening, the public discovered heritage houses, courtyards, streets and urban stories through digital projections, guided tours, interactive installations, children’s workshops and cultural interpretation activities dedicated to urban living.
The story of the project
After the first edition of Urban Explorers – Night Session, dedicated to heritage houses in the IL Caragiale – Jean Louis Calderon – Italian area, the second edition moved the exploration to another territory loaded with urban memory: the Mântuleasa neighborhood.
Mântuleasa is one of those places in Bucharest that seem to exist between two eras. On the one hand, it is a neighborhood crossed daily, close to the city center, caught between busy streets and contemporary urban pressures. On the other hand, it preserves a special atmosphere: old houses, hidden courtyards, fragments of historical housing, stories about professions, families, neighborhoods and ways of living the city that are no longer always visible at first glance.
The second edition of Urban Explorers started from this tension between the visible and the invisible. We set out to temporarily open houses and spaces in the neighborhood, but also to build an experience through which the public could better understand what living as an urban memory means. Not only the architecture of the houses was important, but also the relationship between houses, streets, courtyards, people, stories and the transformations of the neighborhood.
Before the event, the project team conducted field research and historical documentation, working with specialists in architecture, heritage, history and anthropology. This stage formed the basis of the routes, interpretation texts, projections and the exhibition that was subsequently developed. Each house involved was viewed not only as an architectural space, but as a bearer of traces, stories and meanings of urban life.
On September 20, 2025, the Mântuleasa neighborhood became a space for cultural exploration. The public had access to temporarily open houses and courtyards, participated in guided tours, watched digital projections and animations inspired by the history of the places, and discovered cultural interventions created especially for this edition. For children and families, the project included the workshop "Houses that tell stories", carried out together with the Pro Patrimonio Foundation.
The edition continued after the main evening with the exhibition "Living in Mântuleasa", located on Plantelor Street. The exhibition brought visual materials and texts resulting from documentaries into the public space, offering the public the opportunity to revisit the content discovered during the evening of the event and to look at the neighborhood more closely.
For YVS, this edition consolidated Urban Explorers as a format for participatory interpretation of urban heritage. The project showed that built heritage can be activated not only through visiting, but also through research, cultural mediation, community dialogue, artistic interventions and experiences that transform passers-by into explorers of their own city.
What we set out to do
- Let's temporarily activate heritage houses and spaces in the Mântuleasa neighborhood, offering the public access to places that are usually poorly visible or inaccessible.
- Let's build a participatory cultural experience that connects architecture, the memory of habitation, neighborhood stories, and contemporary forms of artistic interpretation.
- Let's develop guided tours, digital projections, installations and educational activities that make built heritage more accessible and relevant to the general public.
- Let's involve children, young people, volunteers, specialists and community members in a process of discovering and enhancing the neighborhood.
- Let's expand the impact of the event through an exhibition in public space, dedicated to urban living and the memory of the Mântuleasa neighborhood.
- Let's consolidate Urban Explorers as a recurring format for cultural activation of Bucharest's urban heritage.
What did I get?
- The second edition of Urban Explorers – Night Session was organized, dedicated to the Mântuleasa neighborhood and the theme of urban living as a form of cultural memory.
- 7 houses and spaces in the neighborhood were involved, including 2 courtyards open to the public and 4 houses activated through animations, digital projections and cultural interventions.
- The main event on September 20, 2025 attracted over 1,000 participants, who explored the neighborhood through guided tours, screenings, installations, workshops, and cultural mediation activities.
- The exhibition "Living in Mântuleasa" was created, located on Plantelor Street and open to the public even after the main evening of the event.
- The project involved an interdisciplinary team of specialists, over 70 volunteers and an extensive network of cultural, educational and community partners.
- The edition consolidated Urban Explorers as a collaborative platform for the interpretation of built heritage and as a replicable model for cultural activation of historic neighborhoods in Bucharest.
Non-governmental association dedicated to civic engagement, heritage and community development.