From 3 to 8 November, UrbanEye, the film festival dedicated to architecture, cities, and urban life, returns to Bucharest for its 13th edition, focusing on housing and the ways we inhabit our spaces.
«The spaces we live in shape our relationships with others and the outside world, our work and educational opportunities, as well as the intimate expression of who we are, our memories, and our aspirations. Regardless of how or where we live, the built environment shapes our individual and collective existence, while preserving the physical traces of the communities to which we belong and the networks of care that sustain us.
Far from being a problem of the future, the housing affordability crisis is already having an acute and direct impact across Europe. And although it is experienced in different ways, housing is an issue that concerns us all. When housing becomes unaffordable, many people gradually lose access to the cities they once knew, along with the jobs, schools, and support networks those cities provide. Against this backdrop, the European Affordable Housing Plan was developed in 2025, marking the official recognition of a major need and bringing the right to housing back into public debate.
Through documentaries from around the world, the festival’s signature portraits of architects, archival films, guided tours, discussions, and events for children, this edition of the UrbanEye Film Festival invites audiences to reflect on housing from multiple perspectives: what it means to us personally, but also beyond our own communities.
Who does the city belong to in the context of accelerating gentrification, and how do we decide whose interests public space should serve? Can those who depend on it for survival take part in the decisions that affect them? How do grassroots solutions emerge, and how are they received by local authorities? What participatory tools are available for urban regeneration projects, and how can we build communities around practices of our own?
These are just some of the questions raised by the programme of the 13th edition, alongside films exploring new architectural and urban visions, prefabricated housing in Eastern Europe, and experimental homes that became creative extensions of the people who inhabited them.
The programme is complemented by the exhibition Housing Through Collaboration, hosted by ARCUB, and a public debate, both organised in partnership with Zeppelin Magazine. Together, they aim to open a dialogue about examples of good architectural practice from Catalonia, ways of overcoming legislative, bureaucratic, and financial barriers, and rebuilding confidence in the possibilities for housing.»
