The Museum of Iron, Resita Part 2 Project 2011 Dan Andrei Caracostea Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism | Romania Resita is one of the oldest industrial cities of Europe, being founded by the Austrian Imperial Court in 1771. Its heyday lasted from the end of the nineteenth century up until World War II. In this period, the steel mill and factories of Resita produced infrastructure for the railroads and bridges across Central Europe, railway engines, electric motors or even cars. Being the most important town of the region, Resita would become the Anchor-Point of the future Iron Trail that connects all the industrial sites around, also passing by natural parcs and rezervations. The Town’s Comprehensive Plan specifies the conversion of abandoned industrial zones situated in the proximity or right in the old town centre. The project proposes a Master Plan that will guide the whole urban recycling process and will create new functions to complement the existing ones: residential areas; an urban park with industrial atmosphere (industrial artifacts conserved on site), sports facilities, restaurants, cinema; a new campus for the local University that will integrate the Evangelic Church, the Reformed Church and the existing protected plantation; offices and commercial spaces.The core of the Master Plan consists in the site of the Blast Furnace, converted into a City for the Industrial Culture. This multifunctional complex revolves around a large public space, dominated by the Museum of Iron. The other buildings contain a conference centre, an innovation centre and an interpretation centre. The concept of recycling is also applied in the Museum, not only by converting the spaces of the Blast Furnace, but also by building the whole structure of the new edifice with recovered steel profiles from demolished industrial buildings.The museum consists mainly in exhibition spaces that occupy creatively the existing buildings and converge with complementary functions like a mediatheque, an auditorium and workshops for restoration of recovered artifacts. This fluid functional hybridization is a reminder of the historical configuration of the town, in which the daily urban life cohabitated efficiently with industrial spaces dedicated to production. This labour philosophy that generated an unique urban structure in Resita is reinterpreted in the concept of the Museum of Iron. Tutor(s) Gabriel Costachescu