Citeste articolul in romana → Poti deschide bucataria spre living intr-un apartament de bloc?
Often yes, if the wall between them isn't structural and you don't cook on gas. A non-structural wall can come down with a notification to the city hall. A structural wall needs an expert assessment, a building permit and the association's vote, and what an engineer allows depends on the building. Gas is the hidden blocker: with a gas hob, the kitchen and living room become one space under the gas rules, so switching to induction is usually the simpler route.
In short
First question: is the wall structural? In panel blocs, the kitchen–living wall often is. Only an engineer can confirm it.
Non-structural wall: it can come down with a notification. Have an engineer confirm it first anyway.
Structural wall: an expert assessment, a structural project, a building permit, and the agreement of two thirds of the association plus every directly affected owner. Whether you get an opening, and how big, is the engineer's call.
Gas: switch to induction. An open kitchen on gas isn't banned, but the whole open space must meet the gas rules: enough window area, a gas detector with automatic shut-off if you have double glazing, an outside air inlet and ventilation. An authorised gas designer has to check it.
Open kitchen, open smells: plan a hood that extracts to the outside or into the kitchen's duct, and keep the existing ventilation grille.
Can't remove the wall? A glazed door or partition, one floor finish and continuous lighting open the space up without touching the structure.
How do you know whether the wall is structural?
You can't tell by looking or knocking. Start with the building type and the documents, then have an engineer confirm.
The building type. In panel blocs, structural walls run in both directions every few metres, and the wall between the kitchen and the living room is often one of them. In brick blocs and frame buildings, it's more often a partition, but not always.
The technical book (cartea tehnica). The association's administrator keeps it and keeps it up to date (Law 169/2026, art. 530 alin. (6)). It may include the original plans showing which walls carry load.
The original plans. Sometimes available from the association, the city hall's archive or the original design institute.
The wall itself. A thin, hollow-sounding wall is a hint, not proof. Some structural panels are thinner than they look, and some partitions were reinforced later.
The engineer. A structural engineer confirms it on site. For any intervention on a structural element, a technical assessment (expertiza tehnica) by a certified expert is mandatory.
Our advice: have a structural engineer look at the wall before anyone touches it, even if you're sure it's a partition. A notification is a declaration on your own responsibility (Law 169/2026, art. 297 alin. (2)). If the wall turns out to carry load, the consequences are yours.
What are your options?
Three outcomes, depending on what the wall is.
1. Remove the wall (non-structural)
Approval: a notification, with a simplified project signed by an architect and engineers (Law 169/2026, art. 294). Works can start about five to six weeks after filing (art. 296).
Cost: demolition roughly 30–125 lei/m² of wall for a brick partition, plus rubble removal. Then the repairs: the floor where the wall stood, the ceiling, and any cables or pipes that ran through it.
Time on site: a few days for the wall itself, more for the floor and ceiling repairs.
2. An opening in a structural wall
Approval: an expert assessment, a structural project, a building permit, and the agreement of two thirds of the association plus every directly affected owner (Law 196/2018, art. 39). Realistically a few months before work starts.
Cost: the expert assessment roughly 1,500–5,000 lei, and 30–50% more in buildings designed before 1977. The works themselves (cutting the concrete, the reinforcement the engineer designs) are priced per project.
What you get: that's the engineer's decision, case by case. It depends on the building, the wall and the expert's assessment. It may be a wide opening, a narrower one, or none at all.
3. Keep the wall, open the space up visually
Approval: none, if nothing structural is touched and the existing door opening stays as it is.
What works:
a glazed door, or a glazed partition in the existing opening;
one floor finish running through both rooms, with no threshold;
lighting planned as one space;
the same colours and materials in both rooms.
What you get: light and a view through. The kitchen stays separable for smells and noise.
Want to know if your kitchen wall can go? Book a free 45-minute Office Hours session, send us your floor plan, photos of the wall and the building's age and type, and we'll help you see which of the three outcomes is realistic, what each needs, and what to ask the engineer.
What about gas?
Switch to induction. An open kitchen with a gas hob isn't banned, but the kitchen and living room become one space under the gas rules, and that space has to meet them.
The gas regulation (NTPEE-2018, approved by ANRE Order 89/2018) sets conditions for any room with gas appliances. Open the kitchen to the living room, and they apply to the whole combined space:
Explosion-relief glazing: windows to the outside (or to a glazed balcony) with a total glazed area of at least 0.03 m² per m³ of the room's net volume in reinforced-concrete buildings, or 0.05 m² per m³ in masonry buildings (art. 129 alin. (1)). A bigger room needs more glazing.
Gas detector with automatic shut-off: mandatory where the windows are double-glazed (Thermopan) or the glass is thicker than 4 mm (art. 129 alin. (2)). With a detector, the minimum glazed area drops to 0.02 m² per m³ (art. 129 alin. (3)).
Combustion air and ventilation:
with airtight windows, air for the flame has to come through a direct inlet from outside (art. 134 alin. (3));
the room keeps a ventilation grille or duct near the ceiling, with nothing to close it (art. 136 and 138);
kitchen fumes go out through a duct, a shared duct, or a hood extracting to the outside (art. 139).
What this means in practice:
If you want to stay on gas, an authorised gas designer has to check the combined space (volume, glazing, detector, air inlet, ventilation) and design what's missing before the wall comes down.
The risk if you don't: a gas installation that no longer meets the rules can be shut off when it's inspected, until it's put right.
The simpler route: an induction hob. No gas project, and none of these conditions apply to the living room. Check that your approved power (puterea aprobata) on the electricity contract covers the new load.
The boiler: if you're leaving district heating for your own gas boiler, the same rules decide where it can go. Place it with a gas designer, not where it's convenient. Sealed boilers that take air from outside and push fumes out are treated differently from open-flame appliances (art. 131).
How do you deal with smells and grease in an open kitchen?
Extraction, not recirculation, and the existing ventilation kept working.
The hood: ducted to the outside or into the kitchen's existing duct, where possible. A recirculating hood only filters the air, and in an open plan the smell reaches the sofa.
The kitchen's ventilation grille: don't block it or remove it. It's part of how the whole building ventilates.
Fresh air: new airtight windows need trickle vents, or the hood can't pull air and condensation follows.
Surfaces: in an open kitchen, the walls and ceiling around the hob are part of the living room. Choose finishes that clean easily.
Can you open your kitchen? A short decision path
Two questions decide almost everything.
Is the wall structural? Ask an engineer.
No: go to question 2.
Yes: you need an expert assessment, a permit and the association's vote, and the engineer decides what's possible. Or keep the wall and open the space up visually.
Do you cook on gas?
No, or you'll switch to induction: remove the wall by notification, plan the hood and the floor repairs.
Yes, and you want to keep it: have an authorised gas designer check the open space first. If it can't comply, keep the kitchen separable with a glazed door or partition.
Find out whether your kitchen wall can go
In a free, 45-minute Office Hours call, an architect looks at your plan and your building with you: whether the wall is likely to be structural, which of the three outcomes is realistic, what the gas means for you, and which approval you'll need.
Bring: the cadastral plan or any floor plan, photos of the kitchen wall from both sides, the building's year and type (panel, brick, frame), and whether you cook on gas.
No pitch, no obligation. Pick a time below; it shows in your local time.
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