Articles published by: Nickname

Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

Svante Myrick is 27 years old and he has been for three years the Mayor of Ithaca , New York. He sold his car and speaks enthusiastically about the dense city, accesible on foot. He also balanced the budget, brought investors and cut down taxes, and his city recorded the highest job‑growth rate in the state.

There is a kind of bias rooted around here, including among many architects: that if you pay a little more attention to ecology, public transport and bicycles you suddenly are against development, old fashioned, romantic, idealistic, utopian and so on. Of course, this is due to some passionate and occasionally naive standpoints, and also because criticism is still not accompanied by alternative proposals.

Text: Cosmin Caciuc

The Romanian audience knows Prince Charles thanks to the recent media news, as a defender of heritage and traditional practices, yet he is actually less known for his critic and often beligerant discourse against modern architecture. The Architectural Review, a prestigious British publication, asked Prince Charles to provide an editorial contribution last December about his vision on the future of cities.

Sold out

This walk through Bucharest takes us to visit six places full of life, design and poetry. We discuss smart solutions, space, light, materials, interior design and details, hidden gardens or floating above the city, about homes and about places to socialize with your neighbours.

The buildings designed by ADN BA office on the streets Dogarilor, Măicănești, Petru Rareș, Mora, Aaron Florian and Occidentului are metropolitan insertions, places that seem familiar; they innovate and carry along the culture of dwelling; they celebrate personal expression, and provide a place for community building. These awarded projects or completely novel works are described in depth, not just from the architectural point of view. This is a book about people, who tell us about their homes and the way they live there.

17. Editor’s: Abusive Fantasies
Text: Cosmin Caciuc
A TV commercial spot reproduces a recording by Constantin Brancusi, with intense and moving big words, about his own destiny and art. Only it is not Brancusi. This is not a recording. These are not even the sculptor’s words. It’s a perfect and troubling forgery in form and content, propagated in the media. A fantasy about how maybe we wanted the artist to be, starting from an authentic photography.

20.  Jaime J. Ferrer Forés: Post-Industrial Landscape and Public Space
>  A city regains an enclave. Refurbishment of the former textile factory of Can Ribas in Palma de Mallorca: recovered parts become the basis of an ensemble of cultural buildings and a network of open spaces.

28. Tetrarc architectes: Hub Créatic: Digital Hive
>  New building of the Ecole d’Ingénieurs de l’Université de Nantes

32. Insert Studio: Compact House, Rich Dwelling  
>  An energy-efficient house in the village of Harman, in Transylvania

36. JRKVC: A (Not so) Banal House
>  A small house on a small plot at a reasonable price, inspired by Slovakian rural architecture. The design fuses old principles and contemporary archi¬tecture.

42. Kenji Ido Architectural Studio: Compressed Dwelling
>  A house in Osaka adapted to a difficult context

46. Iulius Cristea: 4 (Not Really) Identical Blocks of Flats  
> Awarded project to an international competition in Switzerland

48. Place, Memory, Regeneration. 3 Diploma Projects, Ion Mincu University of Architecture

• Valentin Ionescu: Deposits of memory

• Petrea Bodea: Hidden Bucharest – living between the curtain of blocks and the courtyard houses

• Anca Ioana Ionescu: Public Library in Craiova

56. Timotei Fecioru: Kuala Lumpur Aero City
> A sustainable model of urban development generated by airport

58. Justin Baroncea, Radu Enescu: Multiple Presence and Self-Recycling
>  Converting an old house into a restaurant with bar on Eminescu Street, Bucharest. LKL 57 is an architectural project about a lot of bricolage, and almost no new construction.

64. Yellow Office architecture: Taking it Easy
> Interior design for Smart Pub in Craiova

67. Design & More

• 68. Product Start-Up in the East

 > Speaking with designer Irina Alexandru
Reporter: Constantin Goagea

• 71. Jenică Craiu, Alexandra Demetriu: XIS_Lamp

> A soft lighting device

73. Urban Report

• 74. Where Is the Trade Heading To?

>  Holcim Awards 2014 Europe
Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

81. Connected

• 82. Hamilton-Baillie Associates: Shared Spaces. Regenerating Urban Space.

> Radical streetscape changes in a British  small town centre

• 86. Connected. Things about Future, Cities and People

> A research project and a simulta¬neous exhibition exhibition that opens simultaneously in Bucharest, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Bergen. One which is about ideas and people who are smarter than smart systems and who know how to build better cities and communities.

21. Editor’s: How to fix a community?
Text: Cosmin Caciuc

24  ADNBA: The New Urban Villa in the Old Garden City
> ADNBA’s apartment building is an elegant addition to one of the most beautful neigh¬borhoods in Bucharest; it appears in the same time heavy and light, monumental and open, tectonic and stereotomic.

40 Dacra Studio: Completion and Fusion
>  Located in a protected area of Bucharest, an office building proves that theories of the architecture for the city can successfully work with new facade design solutions.
Text: Cosmin Caciuc

48 Carmen Tănase: A Pavilion and a Court
> The headquarters of the Forest department of Bacău County

52 Lama Arhitectura: Outdoor Micro-Architecture
>  “Control Garden” and “Origo Box” from Bucharest are two basic models of outer space consumption in Romania, the first with a venerable tradition (public garden Balkan) and the second being a Western import.

58 Hetedik Műterem Ltd.: The story of the futurist mushroom
>  The restauration of the former bus and tram terminal in Móricz Zsigmond square in Budapest did not involved a complete reconstruction of the former image, but instead emphasizing the original spirit – the clean and dynamic forms, the centrality and flowing space.
Text: Miklós Péterffy

64 Tecon: A House with a Shell
> Dwelling placed in a neighbor¬hood in Southern Bucharest

69 Design & More

70 Galeria Nicodim + Apparatus 22: Grandchildren from the 21st centruy
>  Arrangement made by gallery owners and the exhibition of a multidisciplinary team of artists
Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

74 Solar Decathlon Europe 2014
> Intelligent solar house competition
Text: Irina Damașcan

77 Urban Report

• 78 studioBASAR & Asociaţia Komunitas: Urban_dream_scapes & Urban Spaces in Action

>  The operations from Carol Park and Tei district in Bucharest represent an interdisciplinary initiative, a long-term experiment, a social research, a form of education, recycling, recovery and especially an enthusiastic involvement of the citizens.
Intro: Cosmin Caciuc

87 Connected

• 88 Moment Factory: Immersive Adventure and Multimedia Experiences

> „Interactive Music Wall” and „Foresta Lumina” installations from Canada

• 92  Color Kinetics Japan & RANAGRAM: Movement and Light for Facades

> Interactive LED facade

94  Solar Roadways  / Julie & Scott Brusaw: Solar Roadways
> The first solar road panel prototype

An exhibition that opened simultaneously in Bucharest, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Bergen:

• Bucharest (Romania) – National Museum of Contemporary Art – MNAC (www.mnac.ro) / FB event
• Amsterdam (Netherlands) – New Energy Docks (www.newenergydocks.nl) / FB event
• Bergen (Norway) – City Hall of Bergen (www.bergen.kommune.no) / FB event
• Stockholm (Sweden) – Fargfabriken (www.fargfabriken.se) / FB event

Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

Ask anyone, any intellectual (or even an architect, for the matter), what is more environmentally friendly – a house or a block of flats? – and for most of them the answer will be the house. In fact, it is not. I am not referring to individual examples, but to houses in general: the individual home today fatally involves a periphery location, which means occupying natural land, waste of resources – with less efficient infrastructure for transport and facilities etc., longer commutes – so  more pollution. Plus a bad ratio between usable square feet and the envelope and many other issues.

15. Editor’s: Please, open the window
Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

18. Bogdan Gyemant-Selin
Exposed and sustainable concrete
Center for children activities. An exposed concrete house right next to Bucharest North railway station offers a new vision of building culture
Text: Cosmin Caciuc

28. Incuboxx Timişoara
IT&C Business Incubator
Text: Anda Alexandra Maier

33. Andreescu & Gaivoronschi: Pedestrian space, City Business Center, Timișoara
Text: Irina Damașcan

34. ATELIER 8000: Facing the River
Office building, České Budějovice, Cehia

36. Atelier MASS: Electric castle 2013 – 2014
Event scenography
Text: Silviu Aldea
The festival, organizat around the ruins of the historical ruin of Banffy Castle in Bonţida, Transylvania puts the palace into a new context, and creates a dialogue between avantgarde and the past, the temporary and the permanent, abstract geometry and traditional structures.

42. Gabu Heindl Architektur: Sculpture for the Winer Festwochen
Temporary public space installation

44. Attila Kim: Black shell, bright inner world
Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu
Two attached houses in the outskirts of Bucharest shape individual, protected and luminous spaces inside the plot

52. Jun Murata: Light slits
Renovation of a dwelling, Osaka

54. Point 4: Micro-architecture

• Casa_DO – The refurbishment of an interwar apartment 

Text: Justin Baroncea

• TR_VL – a mobile and foldable object for events in public spaces (in partnership with RADOX)

60. 2014 Venice Biennale
Text: Constantin Goagea, Cosmin Caciuc
A view on 20th century’s modernity and a rather academic edition,  yet with a lot of beautiful and intelligent presentations that deserve to be discussed.  

76. Carmen Nistor: Underground lab
Artistic intervention in Piața Romană subway station

URBAN REPORT

• 78. Politics, memory, agora

Mercat del Born, cultural center and public space, Barcelona
Text: Carmen Popescu

84. Smart & Share Cities
Text: Cosmin Caciuc
How to address smart city ideologies? Long-term global strategies on urbanity give us new opportunities but also new concerns.

90. Cleantech Playground
Project for Ceuvel and Schoonschip neighborhoods, Amsterdam

94. Martin-Emilian Balint: MEM-NON
Interactive installation

16 Modulab: The secret school of technomagic
> Modular educational space for art, technology and collaboration  
Text: Ioana Calen

21 Editor’s: Plastic, plastic, plastic!
Text: Cosmin Caciuc

22  ADN Architecture: The Joy of Living in the City
>  Apartament block on Dogarilor Street, Bucharest: the product of a typological research of community dwelling, a lesson of civilized densification and how to continue an urban character.
Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

44 Felix Tue: Transformation in Layers
>  Transformation of a 40 year old bungalow in Canada

48 CM Architecture: Industrial sensibility
>  Apartment building into a historical district in Istanbul

51 MOBA: Urban Reconnecting
>  Transformation of Liberty Square in  Vsetín, Czech Republic

56 Mihai Vărzan, Péter Marx, Luís Torgal: Shaded Square
>  The rehabilitation of a small green space in the Boulevard Nicolae Grigorescu area in Bucha¬rest undertakes urban design to provide a place for socializing.

58 SANE Architecture

• 58 Bayer Mobile Laboratory

>  Space for chemistry and biology experiments for students  into a park from Bucharest  

60 Taichung City Cultural Center
> Project awarded Highly Commended of the Cultural Regeneration category at the 2014 MIPIM Architectural Review Future Project Awards

62  Republic of Architects: MOMI –an Instrument for Living in the Garden
>  A minimal shelter for outdoor living
Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

64 Rowmania: ECOARCHIPELAGO 2014
> A competition for 5 floating islands on Dâmbovița River in Bucharest
Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

67 Urban Report

• 68 Fundaţia Archaeus: Dealu’ Cerului Project

>  Multidisciplinary school and center for experimental architecture in the forest preserve of Nera-Beușniţa valley.
Text: Alexandra Maier

74 Briefly about Carol Factory Night
Text: Mugur Grosu

77 Design & More

• 78 Let’s play architecture

>  Educational initiative for children, about to become an official teaching program: a (serious) game with architecture in order to achieve a pleas¬ant and healthy environment in the future.
Text: Mina Sava, Vera Marin

81Fence Bench
> Garden furniture meant for public or private exterior spaces

Text: Oana Coarfă

83 Connected

• 84 Alexandra Stoica: The future sounds “green”

> “Smart-green” is the concept of the future
Text: Alexandra Stoica, BREEAM International Assesor

86  Nextdoor
> A US social net¬work that connects people based on the neighbor¬hood they live in
 Text: Andreea Vrabie

88  Interview with Dirk Simons:  Urban by Nature
> On Anthropocene, metabolism, and landscape architecture in the carpet metropolis
Reporter: Claudiu Forgaci

21. Editor’s: (Small) Epic Heroes
Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

22.  b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos: Democratic Reinvention – the New Mercat del Encants
>  B720 proposed for remaking a centenarian informal market¬place in Barcelona not a building, but a canopy hovering above a public space made of a series of ramps connecting the various street levels.
Text: Jean Craiu

31. Expo Milano 2015: The Ideas Competition for the Romanian Pavillion
>  The competition integrated architecture, the theme and the visual identity and showed both an increased interest in sustainability and a preference for tradition as a basic resource.

40. BOGDAN & VAN BROECK

• 40. The white circle in the green

>  The Bakala Academy near Leuven

• 46. Residence, Brussels Free University

>  Accommodation for students, guest lecturers and athletes, but also a representative congress venue

• 52. DICO & ȚIGĂNAȘ: For People and Machines

>  Robert Bosch Factory in Cluj

60. Atelier 25: Public Rural Buiding
>  Rehabilitation and extension, the Centre of Art in Kvilda, Czech Republic

63. Atelier Hoffman: From Coal Mill to Creative Industries
>  Conversion of a former industrial building in the Czech Republic

67.  Zebra 3 & Point Zero: A House for a Business Community
>  Office building designed to house small entrepreneurs in the Northern Bucharest
Text: Toader Popescu

71. Urban Report

• 72. Nature Park Văcăreşti

> Razed history, nature reclaiming an abandoned place, an increasing dense urban context. A collborative project is about to create a vast protected area in the southern part of Bucharest.  
Text: Save or Cancel – Cristina Popa, Andrei Racovițan

• 78. Shared Spaces in Divided Contexts, Cyprus

> The activities of Archis Interventions_CY are exemplary for the added value of architectural and urban research and interventions.  Territorial mapping and building restauration become tools for peace and cooperation
Text: Esra Can Akbil, Giorgos Psaltis

85. Design & More

• 86. BAC_JAPAN 2014

>  Workshop with Japanese students in the Barcelona Architecture Center
Text: Justin Baroncea, Jean Craiu

89. Connected

• 90. Green Building Certification

> Auditing green buildings. Types of certifications. Advantages and benefits of green buildings
Text: Alexandra Stoica, BREEAM International Assesor

92. Altaeros Energies: Flying turbine
> Highest wind turbine ever deployed – demonstration test in Alaska

94. ecoLogicStudio, Carlo Ratti Associati, Cesare Griffa: Architectural Algae Systems
> 2 prototypes previewed as part an exhibition-event at Università degli Studi di Milano, linked by the conception of building integrated farming and urban agriculture: Urban Algae Canopy and Urban Algae Façade.