Articles published by: Nickname

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)

July 2006

The catalogue of the Romanian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale; the first multidisciplinary analysis (architectural, urban, sociological, anthropological and ecological) of the developments on the Romanian territory after 1989.

Authors: Constantin Goagea, Cosmina Goagea, Stefan Ghenciulescu, Justin Baroncea, Ana Bleahu

ISBN-10 973-04537-2 / ISBN-13 978-973-0-04537-6

Participationism is a historiographical construct inspired by mid 1960s’ anthropology and social theories. About twenty years before theorizing, by 1945, Hassan Fathy was testing “participationism” within New Gourna project in Luxor, Egypt. The situation was unique: the Egyptian Department of Antiquities was relocating the local population from the endangered area containing ancient ruins, trying to reintegrate people into sustainable tourism circuit through craft activities that they could undertake. To imagine a new fragment of the village, Fathy relied on timeless images of vernacular architecture made out of earth and adobe, i.e. a technology considered “primitive” by locals who actually wanted a “modern” built environment made of new materials available on the Egyptian market at that time. The architect tried to make people rediscover and reinterpret existing typologies and constructive traditions in a natural way. The “owner-architect-craftsman” triad represented the backbone of its social approach. In terms of space, the space room / cell of the space-structure articulated the entire built tissue.

Parametrica [Digi Fab School] from Bucharest, Romania, invites you to DYNAMIC FIELDS Workshop and Conference (16-29 July 2013) to participate in the digital design build project, seeking to create an inventive collaborative environment. The workshop is part of a series of PARAMETRICA events, promoting computational design thinking and exploring the new possibilities of parametric design.

The workshop is aimed at: students, postgraduates, architects, interior, product and urban designers, engineers, anybody interested.

In 2005, Mircea Cartarescu wrote beautifully and sadly: “a strictly personal drama: they’ve pulled down my mill! Who did it? No idea. What mill? My mill, “Dambovita” mill behind the block on Stefan cel Mare [Boulevard] where I lived for 25 years and where my folks still live. The mill in “Nostalgia” and “Orbitor”, the mill at whose shadow Mendebil would tell his fantastic stories. The mill which dominates my dreams, as huge as all mausoleums and docks of the world would have been placed together. The construction with a most impressive industrial architecture in the world.

Some decades ago any attempt at visiting Almere would have ended up in a fiasco. This is so because the Mecca of architecture, where architects rush to see the first SANAA building in the Netherlands or “the last Christian de Portzamparc” was just an expanse of water, fishermen, and fishing facilities. According to statistics, Almere is the eighth city in the Netherlands in matters of population.
As part of Flevoland province, Almere emerged after the terrain was reclaimed, which happened in early 1968. One of the goals of the new settlement was to create a new urban centre by designing residential areas to release the pressure on Amsterdam and Utrecht, located quite close to it.

I have been more and more certain lately that that kind of progress able to bestow identity on our local architecture should be sought for in experiments. In contrast to regional or magazine-based opinions mainly defined by relations to form and materials, experimental architecture seems to be the real intellectual innovation and fit to be shown abroad; moreover, its chances rely on middle and long-term tendencies to be built in Hungary. Though it is a long-term process and its success is not necessarily spectacular, we should not fail to emphasize it.

I’m reading an article written by Roberto Segre about the architecture intended for the working class, an architecture that has changed the landscape of the towns only in the twentieth century. Until then, poverty did not have such a great influence on the configuration of urbanity. The article argues and offers the examples of the blocks of flats, which have been developed either by the State, or by private contractors, after the Bauhaus period. The article equals the presence of this type of architecture with poverty. But I envisage this concept in relation to a certain political, economic and cultural context, such as the communist period. The ideologically masked poverty, hidden behind the make-up of the communist egalitarianism, has many angles and aspects that have not been clarified yet.

Piet Gerards is something more than a prestigious graphic designer. He sees design as a form of cultural, but also social or political action; it is developing the spirit, not just the language of the historical avant-garde. This interview will reveal both the strictly professional aspects and his responsible and challenging personality.

Interview by Stefan Ghenciulescu & Constantin Goagea

Architectural concept
The extension of the Victoria Palace was the subject of an international design competition. de Architecten Cie have won the first prize. The project integrates the existing and new building into a harmonious and representative ensemble for the HQ of the Romanian government.
The E-shaped layout of the new extension mirrors the footprint of the existing building, organizing the new ensemble around the central courtyards. The new footprint allows a synchronized functional organization and efficient connections in between all levels of the ensemble.