“Made of Bucharest – How do Bucharest residents see Bucharest?”, conducted by Bucharest Community Foundation in partnership with Unlock Research, shows that 1 in 3 Bucharest residents is considering moving out of the city, even though attachment to the capital remains high.

THE INSTITUTE Foundation together with Bucharest Community Foundation launched, within the framework of Bucharest Design Festival (BDF), the quantitative and qualitative study dedicated to the relationship between the capital’s residents and their city: “Made of Bucharest – How do Bucharest residents see Bucharest?”. The study, conducted by Bucharest Community Foundation in partnership with Unlock Research (400 respondents, August 2025), was presented at a press conference held on 9 June, at the DeGalben hub, in Piața Amzei.

The launch of the study within the festival is not coincidental. BDF starts from the premise that good urban design cannot exist without a deep understanding of the relationship between people and the space in which they live. And the study provides exactly this mirror a rigorous radiography of the feelings, expectations and frustrations with which Bucharest residents relate to their capital.

“Bucharest Design Festival is a long-term project of rebuilding the relationship between Bucharest residents and their own city. We set out that, over the next at least five years, the festival’s brand should actively function in this direction and, where attachment already exists, to take it towards something deeper and more affective. We believe this is an objective possible only through a broad partnership with civil society, with entrepreneurs and creative industries, with local public administration, with universities and with companies that build in and for this city. We allow ourselves to be optimistic because we work with design, being one of the most powerful tools through which a city can be made better. Through a common agenda, with partners from such different areas, we believe we can demonstrate what is valuable in Bucharest and not let the collective perception be defined only by what does not work,” stated Andrei Borțun, President, THE INSTITUTE Foundation / Organiser of Bucharest Design Festival.

The following participated in the debate:

• George Tuță – Mayor of Sector 1
• Andrei Borțun – President, THE INSTITUTE Foundation, BDF organiser
• Adina Vlad – Managing Partner, Unlock Research
• Radu Pițurlea – President and CEO, Concelex Romania
• Alina Kasprovschi – Executive Director, Bucharest Community Foundation (panel moderator)

What the study shows

The study’s conclusions describe a real, but contradictory relationship with the city:

• Attachment to Bucharest is high 7.8 out of 10 but the sense of community at city level remains diffuse (6.9/10). People feel connected to the capital through opportunities, work and culture, not through a sense of collective belonging.
• 1 in 3 Bucharest residents is considering moving out of the city, not out of lack of attachment, but for pragmatic reasons: congestion, pollution, environmental quality. The profile of those tempted to leave is exactly the one a city wants to keep: educated, professionally active people with good incomes.
• Only 51% declare pride in Bucharest. The identity of being a Bucharest resident is seen as an inherited status, not as an active relationship with the city: 8 in 10 believe you have to have been born here to be “truly” a Bucharest resident.
• Community exists in neighbourhoods, but not at city level. People connect to their neighbourhood and neighbours, much less to their sector or to the city as a whole. Only 22% are satisfied with the quality of the local community, compared to 55% satisfied with their job. Connection to neighbours and the neighbourhood is much stronger than to the sector or the city as a whole.

“Bucharest Community Foundation has been working for many years on the relationship between people and their city, starting from a simple idea: we would like Bucharest residents to feel at home in Bucharest. We wanted to start from real data, not just from what we believed after 14 years of activity. That is how the partnership with Unlock Research and this study came about. The central conclusion is that the relationship of Bucharest residents with their city is, at this moment, more transactional than anything else. Attachment exists, but it is pragmatic people are here for opportunities, not because they feel part of a community. Emotional belonging is much lower and concentrates at small levels the stairwell, the neighbourhood while Bucharest as a whole remains an abstract notion. It is a real problem, but also an opportunity. We decided that the information from the study should not remain only with us. So it reached Andrei Borțun, the public administration, and today we share it further so that we can build something together.” Alina Kasprovschi, Executive Director, Bucharest Community Foundation.

“Sector 1 City Hall and the Local Council accepted the partnership with Bucharest Design Festival because we share the same conviction: the city belongs to everyone, and its visual and cultural improvement is not a whim, but a responsibility of the administration. We want to develop the art of beauty and build a city in which people have real reasons for pride, not to ask for pride from them without having earned it. The study confirms something we also see in our daily activity: at the level of the city we can be statistics, but at the level of the neighbourhood we gain identity. Neighbours recognise each other, feel like someone, not just a number in a crowded city. Events like Bucharest Design Festival are necessary precisely because they start from real data and bring together the administration, creative professionals, the entrepreneurial environment and civil society. This is, I believe, the only way things can change for the better.” George Tuță, Mayor of Sector 1.

“Bucharest produces a quarter of Romania’s GDP and outperforms cities such as Berlin or Vienna in economic performance. We are, practically, a top European pole, only the city still does not function as a whole, but as a sum of people each going their own way. The study confirms this: a strong individualism among Bucharest residents. I do not see it as a problem, but as a sign of maturity: people know exactly what they want. The challenge is to transform individualism into a community as well, and that is done with places if we build the spaces they truly need, we give them a reason to feel part of the city. That is precisely why all Concelex projects start from the final beneficiary, the people. Whether we are talking about a school, a hospital or a public space, architecture, design and execution must look at the experience as a whole, not just tick a function.” Radu Pițurlea, President and CEO, Concelex Romania.

The study in the context of Bucharest Design Festival

Bucharest Design Festival, organised by THE INSTITUTE Foundation between 20 May and 21 June 2026, is conceived as a creative festival from and for Bucharest a platform that connects professionals from design, architecture and the arts, communities, organisations and the general public, through a programme of exhibitions and events held across over 170 spaces throughout the city. The festival is dedicated to projects and initiatives that contribute to building the identity of Bucharest and to its visibility at national and international level.