It seems as if with the passing of days, we are more and more conservatives here in Romania; including about architecture. Somehow, this is understandable. On the one hand, constant destruction can bring people closer to the past than to an aggressive present; on the other, crises always cause things to fall back into place, bringing about a return to strong identity landmarks and an even stronger nostalgia for the good old, safe days.
If I understand correctly the desire to preserve whatever is left of our past, I can not bring myself at all to accept the refusal of the international context, both in terms of an interpretation of historic Romanian architecture and of what we want our contemporary architecture to become.
We are required to have specific architecture, as if this specific character has nothing to do with the processes of sedimentation and selection and is something that could be created in a lab. Thus, something associated to an “old” image. I find it impossible to understand stylistic conservatorism: why should a new house be disguised into an old one? How does this help saving our authentic heritage? It seems to me that modernity has become a sort of minor sin not only for the cultivated members of the public, but also for many architects- an excusable faux-pas when you build houses in the green field, but a doubtful attitude in a relatively old context. That is to say, you should keep doing whatever was done before to be sure you do it right.
Fortunately, a hysterical modernism in awe of tabula rasa is no longer fashionable; a reflexive attitude towards modernity allows us to look at our own activity period in the last couple of years as a new layer built on historic continuity. However, from this perspective, any historic building becomes a sort of modernist image of its time. The overlapping of “historical modernist” layers and the inhabiting of certain places for several generations gives them a value that no new construction can have. This is one of the reasons which makes working with old houses so very interesting. A proper balance between respect and the courage to stand up for the creation and form of expression characteristic of one’s own layer, the torment and pleasure of bringing new life into a venerable frame are very productive for any architectural practice. The coolest new architecture comes up when you are creative and responsible when working with old architecture: we tried to support this attitude through the 20 recent examples included in the exhibition and through a book on old houses which is further presented in our magazine.
* Photo: by Andrei Margulescu – Architecture center in the former water plant, Suceava (project coordinator : AGD)
