Articles published by: Nickname

In the early 1990s, everyone thought that we could get rid of the House of the People. But some proposals, like to demolish it partially or completely, to bury it under a hill, etc, seemed utopian even then. In fact, it is impossible to destroy it, and actually, it is about an economic value that is supposed to be used. Moreover, maybe it is much better to assume your own history, even its ugliness, than to wipe it off. Nevertheless, I think that few could imagine back then what was really to become of this monster. No one would have thought that both Houses of Parliament would move in and the project would be completed by the very same designer.

The building is located on the outskirts of Katowice, near a forest, on land deteriorated by 4th category mining damage, where tectonic faults are a possibility. Hence the connotation of uplifted layers of soil, interwoven with one another, which was the inspiration for the form of the house.  Its structural design comprises rectangular solids contrasting with the ribbon – like structure which winds around them after it emerges from the ground. It is the leitmotif of the building, combining a variety of functions: starting with the swimming pool to the living room with a fireplace and then to the bedroom upstairs. A noteworthy feature of the ramp is elemination of stoops. Such a solution was achieved by bending the surface of the course, which made it possible to keep its outer edges straight, without bends typical for such structures.

Remix, our project for the Biennale in Venice, has now reached Basel, in a larger festival, which was dedicated this year to the Romanian culture: Culturscapes. www.culturescapes.ch.
It’s a combination of factors and events that thrill us. Not only for the sake of our egos, but for the real people and projects we’ve seen there. Since the simplest and the most surprising statement about Basel is that it has a real life, that it’s a real place. And when I say that, I mean that the social and cultural life of this city is deep, with serious ethical roots.

2011. Summary of the debate and the film of the marathon event. City. Money. Architecture.

An international debate and conference on architecture as a political act in an economy based on cultural values, attended by architects, expert city planners, practitioners experienced experienced in interventions in difficult contexts, city managers and government representatives, various urban policy specialists, economists, NGOs active in the field.

The international architecture and urban culture magazine Zeppelin is an editorially and financially independent publication, managed by the Zeppelin Association.

Zeppelin evenings are a series of conferences dedicated to architecture, design and urban culture, an education and communication project launched in early 2008. Starting with 2011, the event takes places in the Aula of “Charles I” Central University Library. This open platform accumulated, in 45 editions (December 2012) to over 11,000 participants and regularly proposed meetings with architects, designers and artists all over the world. The project of zeppelin evenings means an open scene for art and intellectual interaction. The topic of that interaction is always the city, architecture, urbanity, but in a transcultural perspective, with mixes of ideas and content, fertile and original. The aim of the evenings is to support cultural practice based on dialogue, cooperation and interdisciplinary.

Bucharest, A photo mapping, 2004–2012
exhibition, website & workshop by Ștefan Tuchilă & Zeppelin
10–30 October 2012, National Museum for Contemporary Art, Bucharest

In the last 8 years, Ștefan Tuchilă climbed over 80 buildings and took several thousand photographs of Bucharest: another kind of urban research, a methodical and spectacular urban mapping. And a support for the recollection of a city that is constantly reinventing itself.

bilingual edition [EN / RO]

To preserve all the old layers didactically, to reuse the existing substance, to appeal rather to acupuncture and to discrete novelty are some simple statements that unite the ~20 projects grouped in this volume [also selected in a homonymous exhibition]. Some examples:
* The Suceava Water Plant. Centre of Architecture, Urban Culture and Landscape (Project: Chamber of Romanian Architects, North EasternBranch)
* A slice of town. The Theresia Bastion, Timişoara (Project: Archaeus)

exhibition
2 November 2011 – 10 January 2012, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest

conferences & debate
16 December 2011, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest

Almost 6 hours into a marathon, structured in two sessions of conferences, each one followed by one debate. The event brought together architects, urban planners and expert economists from Romania, the Netherlands and Germany who explored study cases, failure or success scenarios for urban development, formulae to increase the attractiveness of cities for locals and investors, opportunities and solutions for new urban projects.