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Project initiators: Zeppelin, Ideilagram

December 22, 1989 marked not only the fall of the Ceaușescu regime, but also the end of the megalomaniac communist project to demolish and then rebuild Romanian cities. Thirty years on, the collective memory of these destructions is fading away, while the aggression against the cities continues, even in an opposite paradigm – that of ultraliberal development.

Text: Jean Craiu
Photo: Aleix Bagué

The MG house is in a residential neighbourhood in the town of Sant Cugat de Vallès, a small place, 5 km away from the outskirts of Barcelona (measuring from the les Planes neighbourhood limits), between the hills of Collserola and De Galliners.

The small yet functionally complicated building, uses all possible means to ensure a small scale and a dignified look, fit for the sensible historic areas where it lies. At the same time, the project literally digs up one of the city’s old water courses and generates a small space open to the public.

Modul Cărturești is a new bookstore and, in the future, also an important exhibition space in downtown Bucharest, on Academiei Street, accessible from the portico of the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism. The library does not simply take up a space, but also transforms it, being a first step towards reconstructing and, in fact, carrying on its original public and transparent character.

A project within I’M UAU program of Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism – Bucharest (UAUIM)
Text: Justin Baroncea
Foto: Radu Malașincu, Cristina Ginara, Alexandru Ivanof

GEST: A laboratory that includes workshops of ceramic ‘confections’, lighting appliances, furniture made of recycled materials and pieces, cartoons on the walls, and a boiler on the ceiling.

This is a small house with a big interior, one that’s cheap in cost an rich in spaces. We get to hear not just form the architects, but also from the clients: about climbing stairs all day, about getting some time together at home, about how the house and the family grow together

Text: Andrei Răzvan Voinea, Irina Calotă

Historic lotissements and neighborhood communities—research for the residents

There were two main public institutions in charge of implementing Bucharest’s housing policy in the first half of the twentieth century—the Communal Company for Low-Cost Housing (1910-1948) and the Building Fund (1930-1949). The legacy of this policy consists of twenty-two lotissements with standard dwellings in Bucharest, some of them included as heritage on the List of Historic Monuments and/or qualified as protected built-up areas, a legal status that does not necessarily entail the conservation of the values that these districts embody.

Text: Mugur Grosu
Photo: Alexandra Savu, Dorothee Hasnaș, Mugur Grosu

Seven years ago, I spoke with the former chief executive of the London Development Agency, architect Peter Bishop, at the launch of his book, Temporary City. I asked him if there was any place for poetry in the big cities. Of course, he told me, and he recounted architect Jaime Lerner, who reached the position of mayor of the Brazilian city of Curitiba

Intro: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

For over 12 years, I have nominated, as an independent expert, works for the EU Mies Award, as to use its shortened name. In 2019, I had the privilege to be part of this edition’s jury. Together with my colleagues, we shortlisted 40 projects of the 383 submitted, then 5 finalist projects, then the award. Andwe visited all the 5 works selected in the final, as well as the one receiving the award for emergent

Text: Sergison Bates architects
Photo: David Grandorge

Completed in 1658, Yotes Court is a Grade I listed country residence within a 20-acre estate.

Our project is for a leisure building comprising a 15m indoor heated swimming pool, associated changing facilities and gymnasium.

Republic of Architects is led by Emil Burbea, Oana Iacob, Radu Ponta and Alexandra Zăgan. They are no strangers to Zeppelin, in very different ways: to their designs of minimal living prototypes, to the transformation of their office space in an open place, to apartment buildings or theoretical texts on transition urbanism. Most articles shared the context – the Bucharest central area – the combination between practice and the critical overlook on the city, the space, urban life. For this article, they take us on a ride outside the downtown.

I met Vlad Bina in the very early 90s, when I was a young architecture student, while he had just graduated. He was considered by his teachers to be an outstanding student and graduate and I remember his wonderful hand drawings. He left for the US, where he works in feature film Production Design designing digital and physical spaces for storytelling. He is using for this an extensive 3D computer graphics experience built on an architectural, design and art history background.