Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning

Designed by V. Bessonov and likely completed in 1980 (ironically, little information is available online on the building), the ensemble of two square blocks forms part of the Technical University of Moldova campus is set back from the street behind a garden with trees. The covered walkway connecting the two pavilions carries a large-scale abstract mosaic, interlocking planes of ochre, blue-grey, red and white. It reads as a deliberate institutional statement about the synthesis of architecture and art. The faculty itself predates its building by eight years. Architecture education at the Polytechnic Institute began in 1964 with the opening of a Department of Architecture and Engineering Construction, embedded within the broader Construction Faculty. The Faculty of Urbanism and Architecture was formally constituted as a separate unit in August 1972, consolidating specialisations in architecture, urban engineering, road construction, and hydraulic engineering. A Department of Architectural Fundamentals followed in 1980, formalising the foundational training of architects within an institution that remains Moldova's only state-accredited school of architecture and urbanism.