As for the apartments, the closing of the glass spaces (balconies and loggias), still hesitant in the socialist epoch is nowadays generalized; the unmodified balconies appear as unwonted exceptions. The reasons customarily invoked ? both problems with the heating system and the recuperation of a supplementary space (that, however is not usually invested with an ?interior? function) ? cannot be universally valid, especially in the case of ?luxury? apartments. One can rather assume that the greenhouses thus created strengthen the limits between the interior and the exterior universe.

Paradoxically, the willful isolation characterizes even a large amount of the constructions and the adjustments with commercial and service functions (stores, offices, and even restaurants). The problem of protection through constructive methods is not a real problem in these cases, whose character would normally trigger the expression of accessibility and opening. But the ideal model seems to be the box as even-surfaced as possible, with its marble cover ? if possible, and made out of mirror glass panels, in all likelihood, going down up to the sideways. Thus, one can discern the appearance of privileged spaces, real temples for the elected, where one must earn his way in, coming from an exterior impure world.

There is no way of knowing if the divorce from the town, as expressed by the transformations of the past few years, is final. It is probably not the case. Considering the general development of the Romanian society, there is still hope for a ?new? identity of Bucharest, shaped in such a way as to include ?old? elements, as well. But, transparency, as a characteristic method of defining spatial limits in an urban collectivity, appears to be an almost closed chapter.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES:

BENEVOLO Leonardo, 1983, Histoire de la ville, Marseille, Éditions Parenth?ses.

DERER Petre, 1985, Locuirea urbană(The Urban Way of Living), Bucureşti, Editura Tehnică.

HARHOIU Dana, 1997, Bucureşti, un oraş între orient şi occident (Bucharest, a town between East and West), Bucureşti, Editura Simetria şi Arcub.

LASCU Nicolae, 1997, Legislaţie şi dezvoltare urbană. Bucureşti 1831 ? 1952 (Legislation and Urban Development. Bucharest 1831 ? 1952), (teză de doctorat în cadrul Institutului de Arhitectură ?Ion Mincu?, Bucureşti) (a Ph.D. thesis within the ?Ion Mincu? Architecture Institute, Bucharest), Bucureşti.