{"id":13010,"date":"2022-12-13T13:29:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T13:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e-zeppelin.ro\/en\/?p=13010"},"modified":"2022-12-13T16:48:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T16:48:16","slug":"mass-cut-outs-collage-adn-ba-apartment-complex-sfintii-voievozi-st-bucharest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e-zeppelin.ro\/en\/mass-cut-outs-collage-adn-ba-apartment-complex-sfintii-voievozi-st-bucharest\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass, Cut-outs, Collage. ADN BA: Apartment complex, Sfin\u021bii Voievozi St., Bucharest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sfinții Voievozi is a quiet street downtown Bucharest, hidden in a tetragon defined by important boulevards – Calea Victoriei, Buzești-Berzei Bd., Calea Griviței and Dacia Bd. What used to be a semi-urban fabric 150 years ago, with large gardens, buildings that were rather scattered and low, streets and plots with an organic geometry, has transformed, through densification and regularization. Major actions live along parts that still largely preserve some ancient character. This logic of a porous fabric, of overlapping and juxtaposing patriarchal houses and plots with buildings that express the various waves of modernisation, is also very well expressed by the plot and vicinities of the apartment complex we are discussing here.<\/p>\n

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$\"02_A_SFV_001_DJI_0890_vladpatru\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

*Building in the depth of the plot, common space, gardens on the ground and on the roofs<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu<\/strong>
\nPhoto: Vlad Pătru, Sabin Prodan<\/strong><\/p>\n

The land is L-shaped, with different angles and widths, resulted from the joining of two plots. It contains a portion aligned to the street and, at the same time, goes deep inside the block. It neighbours lower houses, but also, in the inflection point of the two major parts, a massive and not-so-friendly building – a student dorm of the Academy of Economics.<\/p>\n

$\"ADN_BA_Sfintii_voievozi_plan_de_situatie\"$ <\/a>*situation plan<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Very close by, on Occidentului St., visible from many places in the new complex, is a beautiful and innovative ADN BA living project, finished some 5 years ago. But to me, the main reference for the current operation or, if you will, the main element of comparison, is the Urban Spaces development on Dogarilor St., a first collaboration between these investors and architects.<\/p>\n

Designed and built during the economic crisis, Urban Spaces Dogarilor simply exploded on the Romanian architecture scene and continues to be very successful with the public. [We wrote about this project in Zeppelin 125\/2014, in the book “Dwelling Together. 6 apartment buildings by DNA BA”. The Dogarilor complex was, among others, showcased at the Venice Biennale and nominated for the Mies van de Rohe awards. The apartments, are, to this day, some of the most coveted in Bucharest.] It has become a textbook example of responsible densification and of recovering a spirit of the place, an articulation with a discontinuous urban fabric, one of richness of living units (there, all the about 70 apartments were different, and the types themselves counted in the range of tens), of integrating common spaces, and of brave and fresh architectural expression.<\/p>\n

As we will see below, Urban Space Sfinții Voievozi is developing this type of endeavour in a more temperate and more pragmatic manner.<\/p>\n

$\"01_A_SFV_014_IMG_6100_vladpatru\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

A Piece of Urban Fabric<\/strong><\/p>\n

The plot facing Dogarilor Street was more compact, allowing for the repartition of units in two basic bodies, one extremely fractured towards the street, the other one at the back of the plot, and in-between, a well-defined common yard.<\/p>\n

$\"03_AB_SFV_011_IMG_5943_vladpatru\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Given the complicated shape of the plot on Sfinții Voievozi St., 4 units were designed. The two facing the street continue the existing alignment. They are strongly connected between themselves and with the third module, creating an assembly whose continuity is interrupted by a generous passage and by various faults, cut-outs, recesses creating terraces and loggias. The last one is separate and placed at the extremity of the plot, but close to the others and participating in the overall dynamics and character. The dead walls are nearly completely covered, the neighbours’ yards are extended by the assembly’ courtyards, it becomes part of the urban fabric.<\/p>\n

Due to these conditions, the empty space is therefore rather tentacular, slimming down in certain places, and wider where possible.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the interior common spaces, with more public functions, are generous. They are completely covering the ground floors of the first three bodies, which also entails a courageous openness towards the city from the interior of the plot, and turns the passage from a way through to a public space during the day. The city is entering the plot and the building.<\/p>\n

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