On 4 November 2025, the second day of FAST 2025 (3rd edition), held in Iași, the FAST community gathered in Târgu Cucu for a landmark moment: the unveiling of the FAST tram, titled The Architects’ Tram. Students, professors, practitioners, and curious passers-by came together around it, turning public transport into a shared framework for urban discovery and a conversation starter about the city.
The project was created by students, coordinated by the Tramclub Iași Association, and supported by the Iași Public Transport Company, the “G.M. Cantacuzino” Faculty of Architecture in Iași, the Iași Architecture Students Association, and the Romanian Order of Architects. Presented as a collective work, The Architects’ Tram took shape through collaboration, hands-on workshop practice, and careful attention to detail, bringing together graphic design, craftsmanship, and spatial thinking in a piece visible at city scale.
Developed as part of the cultural program Iași – the city of painted trams, the concept revolves around the window as a symbol of openness, communication, possibility, collaboration, transparency, and trust. The tram’s exterior became a façade made of many windows, inviting the public to read architecture through small and large gestures alike, through objects, forms, moments, and symbols. The “window” also became a way of seeing the city: from inside out, while moving, with attention constantly shifting between the close-up and the big picture.
The opening carried the distinctive energy of an event where process and outcome meet. Scenes from the depot captured last-minute adjustments, surface work, and the students’ precise, methodical gestures, while in the city the tram quickly turned into a gathering point. Cold November light, fallen leaves, and the crowd clustered around the tram created a natural stage set, where the graphic intervention sat effortlessly within the everyday urban landscape. Inside, the windows framed faces, conversations, phones lifted for photos, and spontaneous reactions, blurring the line between daily routine and special occasion.
The unveiling was accompanied by two guided tours. The tram ride followed Str. Cuza Vodă – Piața Unirii – Bulevardul Carol I – Rond Agronomie, ending on Str. Musicescu, near Râpa Galbenă. Three trams ran for the tour: The Architects’ Tram (created for FAST 2025), The Freedom Tram signed by Dan Perjovschi, and the Tourist/Café Tram. Seats were limited and participation followed the order of arrival, reinforcing the feeling of a moment happening in real time.
After the ride, participants continued on foot, walking from Râpa Galbenă to Palace Square, extending the city reading into street-level pace. Moving from rails to walking shifted the scale of perception, from a city observed in motion to the textures of façades, the rhythm of streets, and the relationships between spaces.
To close the day, two students from the Faculty of Architecture in Oradea, host city of FAST 2026 (4th edition), shared their impressions of the ride and their first-hand encounter with Iași. They described it as “a boom of architectural models and styles.” While Oradea is largely defined by Art Deco, Iași felt like an explosion of architecture visible both from the street and from the tram. They also highlighted the city’s layered terrain: climbing uphill, descending into valleys, and constantly discovering new viewpoints, which made Iași feel vividly alive.
Once the tours ended, the tram remained more than a graphic object. It became an instrument of urban memory: a moving piece that continues to circulate and tell a story about collaboration, education, and how architecture can step off the page and into everyday life.
Photo credit: Tiberiu Ifrim, Iuliana Marcu, Carpiuc Cosmin, Chifan Yolanda, Berescu Ana Maria
