The biggest architectural event of the year in South-East Europe is coming up.

Text: Cristian Bădescu, Vlad Dumitrescu
Foto: Vlad Dumitrescu, Marius Vasile, Cristian Bădescu, arhiva fam. Cocioabă

De-cityfication: the reality of expanding urban characteristics outside cities, paradoxically leading to un-city-like forms of urbanism.

The extension of an industrial building in the Swiss city of Winterthur. „Extending the Cycle” project received the Global and the European Prize at the 2021 Holcim Awards – the main global competition for sustainable design.

The Serpentine House (Finnish: Käärmetalo) is one of the best-known residential developments in post-war Helsinki – among other merits, it has been listed by DOCOMOMO as a significant example of modern architecture in Finland.

Seaweed on the roof, and bricks filled-in with earth from the building site excavation. This small and compact dwelling block happily blends timeless rationalism and regionalism, climate- and social appropriate thinking and smart inventions. A model.

Doina Petrescu teaches Architecture and Design Activism at the University of Sheffield and, together with Constantin Petcou, founded Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée, a platform-association intersecting architecture, participative urban planning, activism, acting as a device for addressing societal issues through the participative activation of unused spaces.

At least three of the words I used in the title raise questions beyond the aesthetic register. First, ‘guild’. The idea of belonging to a ‘professional group with common interests’ (a possible definition of the guild) contains a cultural anachronism

The newest Wim Wenders movie, Perfect Days, which was filmed in Shibuya, Tokyo, was inspired by a  network of famous designers and architects who designed nothing else but 17 toilets for one of the most populated cities of the world.

Late December on a canal embankment, in a rarely praised neighbourhood. The complex, named after an exceptional Brussels-born sportswoman, does not shout its presence. However, upon entering, I have found a magical and complex world, welcoming athletes, toddlers, teenagers or simply neighbours who use its gallery as a shortcut.

In 2023, Timisoara was European Capital of Culture. The program was based on several components, one of which was the section Places relating to the city’s spaces – old and new, to urban regeneration and discussions about the city’s future.

Edito: Mies, Corbu, Mosquitoes

Text, photo: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

DOSSIER: Transylvania

Coordinators: Ștefan Ghenciulescu, Cătălina Frâncu