One of the most critical and problematic aspects of today's Bucharest is the central area's fast densification. While we believe that density can, and (in many cases) must be seen as a form of sustainability, we also admit that the often fragile relationship between habitation within an old neighbourhood and the increase of density can sometimes alter the place and reduce its existing qualities.
Our project is looking for an appropriate answer to this issue. It intends to mediate between different sizes and densities in a central neighbourhood characterized by small streets, long, narrow plots and a puzzle of old and new buildings of all types and scales. The project seeks to preserve, at its own scale, the porosity and "profoundness" of the deep, narrow plots while also trying to capture part of the "collage" appearance of the surroundings. The volumetric proposal aims to open the building to the street and towards the depth of the plot. Thus, the volume facing the street is less compact, and the ground floor is more transparent, allowing for a better visual connection across the site at eye level. In this way, we have also tried to mediate between the continuous alignment required by the urban regulation and the fragmentation, which defines the street and the surrounding urban fabric.
At the same time, the project proposes a type of habitation that we consider suitable for the centre of the contemporary city: a place where the relatively small spaces and the density are complemented by diversity and larger shared spaces. Most of the apartments are different from one another, not only in size but especially in typology.
They range from studios to four-bedroom apartments, each one spread across one, two or even three floors and having private courtyards, balconies or terraces of different sizes. The units are accompanied by several indoor and outdoor common spaces (terraces, party room, large halls etc.), while the ground floor offers several rentable commercial spaces and ateliers towards the street and the inner courtyard.
The apartments are conceived in such a way as to allow a great deal of flexibility, making it possible to connect (horizontally or vertically) two or more small units into a larger one, leading, in the end, to a building consisting of 77 residential units offering approximately 50 types of apartments.
Material Used:
Flooring: wooden deck, Natural Wood Floor microtopping, epoxi resins, Concrete Art
Windows: Aluminum windows,, Alukönigstahl
Interior furniture: MOOR, Acant Design, Ador Mobila, Silva Artis, Woodyo
Façades: fiber cement ventilated façade, Confelux Prod
