May 2015 ISSUE # 5
Learning from students
Architecture and Design Magazine
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ISSUE # 5/ May 2015
WHY
3nta.com
1. 3NTA is an online magazine, with the aim of giving to students’ projects and ideas the dignity they deserve. 2. 3NTA does not pretend to be young, 3NTA is young. While being young, it enjoys the privilege of being naive. 3. 3NTA doesn’t ask for your grades. It considers “interesting” as its only value. For 3NTA there is no “good” or “bad” intellectual work. 4. 3NTA is international and local at the same time. With the role of the rotating editor it proposes local points of view in an international way. The rotating editor changes every month and it is always based in different city. 5. 3NTA is neither serious nor friendly. It is seriously friendly. It believes that communication requires effort and innovation within both architecture and design. 6.3NTA is not a random name. There is a very long story behind it. Maybe one day we will tell you about it… Maybe not. 7. 3NTA doesn’t know if it is going to last forever. But a beginning is more than enough. 8. 3NTA is quoting SAN ROCCO with this manifesto. If you don’t know SAN ROCCO, it’s enough to know that it’s a very cool architecture magazine, but 3NTA is much cooler. 9. 3NTA realized too late that the points are just 9. Unfortunately 3NTA is made by people and people make mistakes all the time. Students more than professionals. Therefore 3NTA is wrong on everything it says, and loves it! 10. this is all.
WHY
the magazine
Students all over the world share their efforts on 3NTA every day and we decided to make it tangible in a Issuu magazine. Here we collected some of the best contents presented on the website in the last month. Articles, projects, graphics, special contents from the rotating editor; all re-edited and reorganized, in order to give you a small taste of what 3NTA is about: students.
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ISSUE # 5/ May 2015
#5
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360° students' architecture and design magazine
“Bucharest is neither black, nor white. It reflects the color of your mood. Bucharest is a mix of feelings.”.
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B Y T H E ED I T O R S Buc ha rest: a mix of feeling s
Bucharest is neither beautiful, nor
helped it to grow and define its
ugly, neither black, nor white.
unique personality. The mix of dif-
You might find it charming and in the same time totally unattractive. Maybe you will feel the need to see it again or you have left with bad memories, but it will certainly not
ferent styles and historical periods that marked the evolution of the city might seem chaotic, but in the same time it gives a particular charm.
allow you to treat it with indiffer-
Over the years, the city of Bucha-
ence.
rest always oscillated between
Always being surprising, it will not let you get bored. On the same street you can meet metropolitan intensity and, next to it, you find yourself in a peaceful or even village-like neighborhood. Its adventures from “A big village” to “Little Paris” and continuing with modernism and communism
two opposite poles: East and West, Orient and Occident, Europe and the Balkans, communism and capitalism. This contradictory evolution left traces deeply embedded in the structure of the city and in the soul of every inhabitant. Today the city is in a period of transition trying to find its own
way of evolution. After a totali-
Through a participatory urban
tarian regime, the freedom that
planning people’s opinions will be
is offered now is sometimes mis-
heard and they will create their
understood. In the same time, the
own Bucharest, a city that reflects
biggest problem is that there is
the spirits of its inhabitants.
not a long-term strategy regarding the further development of the city. With every change of the ad-
What about your city? Do you feel it represents you?
ministration it is also changing the fate of the city. Young architects are trying to improve the situation and do something in this regard. Their initiatives are like warning signals that are calling the residents to be part of their city’s further development.
Ramona Deaconu
Karina Panculescu
Cosmina Colceriu
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I N DEX [10 -13]
[30 -36] Projects/Design
SAC BY M ECA NI S M Mara Ciubotaru, Diana Singuran
[14 -19]
Articles
1,2,3...ACTION Aga Batkiewicz
[20 -21]
th e l ayers of a b lu e Helena Patelisova’
[38 -41]
Graphics/Po
v egeturi ze Devi Petti, Elena Monteleone
Graphics/Infographic
SHORT HISTO RY O F S HA KE R S Deepa Parapatt, Valeria Loreti
[22 -29]
Articles
Project/Architecture
Windmi ll Conv ersion Alexandru Cristian Besliu, Alexandru Stefan Vasiliu’
[42 -55]
Project/Arch
protect th e k nowl e Anca Ioana Ionescu
[56 -60]
Articles
mor e q ua l ification Giulia Fioravera
[62 -65]
e onion
sters
Articles/Interview
scenog raphic point of v i ew Octavian Nicolai
[66 -77]
Project/Architecture
in betw een Cristina Popescu
[78 -79]
Graphics/Cut out
hitecture
e de g e of a city ?
ification for b e tte r ide as
e legant peop le cut out Nicola Vecchio
[80 -84]
Articles
architecture an d dementia Anežka Prokopová
All the contents have been chosen by our ROTATING EDITORS
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Projects/Design
SA C BY M E C AN I S M
Author: Mara Ciubotaru, Diana Singuran Nationality: Romanian City and date of birth: Bucharest, 13.07.1990/26.04.1990 EMAIL: mecanism.office@yahoo.com Function: Product design Year: 2014 Institution: IMUAU Bucharest, Faculty of Architecture
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SAC is the first creation of Mecanism, a team of two Architecture students, and was born out of a need to provide a comfortable sitting detail
object which holds a clean and simple shape. Being the first object that we enter the market with, we wanted to distinguish it with a Romanian traditional motif. We chose this motif for the beauty which lies in its graphic design, as well as its purpose as a reminder of the values and traditions that should define us as people. After we explored several sketches of different shapes, we finally came upon the current one which led us to think of the sacks encountered in the Romanian households, used primarily for storing crops. Spending our childhood in the country side, we remembered the sacks of crops stored in the barn in which we used to immerse ourselves in after a long day of play.
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Given its similar shape, we decided to name it simply – SAC. Choosing the traditional motif was quite easy. The ear of wheat was something we chanced upon after much research into traditional models in antique books and libraries. We felt that the traditional motif is to be highlighted best by embroidery, giving the SAC more authenticity. As for the filling, we used contemporary materials such as polystyrene balls and silicone fluff. The inside was divided into different spaces so that a proper amount of a certain filling would serve for a specific part of the body. For the exterior cover, we proceeded to choose flax, a very often encountered material in Romanian culture, but this time with a polyester material attached on its underside, called blackout, for higher endurance. The exterior cover is detachable so that it can be washed. The dimensions are 125 x 135 x 70 cm, in three colour options: gray, sand and beige.
The embroidery was the most difficult part of the process. We appealed to many embroidery companies, but ended up dealing with their scepticism on the account of the difficulty it imposed. Eventually, we came across a garment factory in Bacau which took upon the challenge to help us, and the final result was a successful one. Apart from that, SAC was designed, cut and sewn by us. Finally, it resulted in what you see in the pictures: a comfortable SAC , which gives you the immediate need to immerse yourself in, with a traditional Romanian motif defined by simple, clean lines which easily integrate it in the urban and living spaces.
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Articles
1, 2 , 3 … A ction : Kool haas’ car e e r
in fi l mmak ing Author: Aga Batkiewicz Nationality: Polish location: Delft, Netherlands/TU Delft, Delft
Every great story has its beginning, just like every famed architectural career is rooted somewhere. Tadao Ando was a boxer, Frank Ghery drove a delivery truck and Norman Foster served for the Royal Air Force. In this sense, the story of Rem Koolhaas is no exception. Before studying architecture at the renowned AA in London, Koolhaas had a short, but successful episode in filmmaking as a member of the rebellious ‘1,2,3 Group.’ Also a part of this group was Rem’s longtime friend Rene Daalder who himself recently authored a biographical document on Koolhaas: ‘Leaning Towers’.
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Koolhaas’ interest in cinematography was not accidental. His father, the acclaimed writer Anton Koolhaas has been the author of the scenarios of Academy-Award nominated films ‘Everyman’ and ‘Ape and Super Ape.’ In 1950, when Rem was six years old, Anton directed his first and only movie: ‘The Dike Restored’, a lofty, propaganda-like story of post-war reconstruction, depicting an engineer (or perhaps, an architect?) rebuilding the country from its ruins.
The members of the ‘1,2,3, Group’, production still,
Being established in the sixties, the ‘1,2,3 Group’, with its anarchistic way of filmmaking, falls within the hectic time of the emergence of the hippie movement and worldwide counterculture. The group’s anti-authoritarian approach is well portrayed in their first movie ‘1,2,3 Rhapsody’, where in one of the scenes Koolhaas dives under the skirt of Queen Elizabeth and violates Her Majesty plunging like a vampire into the Queen’s neck.
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‘The White Slave’, production still, courtesy Rene Daalder
After the Rhapsody, Koolhaas had co-written the script for Daalder’s first feature movie ‘The White Slave.’ This cutting-edge production became the most expensive Dutch film ever made to this date, which was quite an achievement for a couple of twenty-something years old. The surreal and sarcastic story centres around the trafficking of beautiful Dutch women trained as nurses to be soon sent to Tangiers. Instead however, the ladies are being trapped in a brothel, forced to belly dance and pleasure the brothel’s master Abrahami. Absurd and bizarre, this story seems to have been written by a madman. Fascinating insight into Koolhaas’ early imagination. Encouraged by the film’s success, Daadler and Koolhaas sketched out a script for another, this time a Hollywood production called “Hollywood Tower”. The film anticipates the emergence of the Hollywood of the 21st century, where cyborgs replace the actors and the last man truly admiring human flesh is the film’s main character–the director, Russ Meyer, a protagonist of a “sexploitation cinema”. The first draft of a proposed scenario was presented to Russ, however, despite having him on board, the movie has never been finished.
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‘The Hollywood Tower’, a film by Rene Daalder and Rem Koolhaas, courtesy of Rene Daalder
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Koolhaas’ early experience in film-making has certainly been of a great influence for his future career. In a recent interview with the documentary maker Gary Hustwit for ‘Fast Company’ magazine, the architect compares the two practices: ‘There are a number of commonalities. Both are complex because they require huge amounts of money. They’re both about teamwork, obviously, and I personally think that you can look at film-making and it has a number of elements, such as narrative plot, montage, and jump cuts, and procedures that you could find an equivalent to in architecture very easily. Having been involved in movies in my early life, I think, really facilitated my sense of what architecture would be.’
The traces of a flexible collaboration within the “1,2,3 Group” can also be found in the way that the work-flow of OMA is organized now. The members of the film-making group formed a sort of collective, without specified tasks or hierarchy, sharing different roles in front and behind the camera. As suggested by Daalder in his documentary, this multi-perspective way of collaborating is something that Koolhaas introduced later in the work of his office, where the opinions of the specialists from different disciplines clash in the turbulent design process.
I’d like to thank Rene Daalder who kindly allowed the publication of his films and photographs.
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Graphics/ Infographics
SHORT H IS TORY OF
SALT AN D P EPP E R SHAKER
Author: Valeria Loreti, Deepa Parapatt Nationality: Italian location: Rome/ISIA Roma Design Function: Salt and pepper shaker infographic USED SOFTWARE: Adobe Illustrator CS6 Year: 2015
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Projects/Architecture
Win dmil l Con v ersion
Author: Alexandru Cristian Besliu, Alexandru Stefan Vasiliu Nationality: Romanian City and date of birth: 23.07.1991, 28.11.1991 EMAIL:cristibesliu@gmail.com, alexs.vasiliu@gmail.com Function: Workshops Site location: Bestepe Village, Tulcea Year: 2012 Institution: IMUAU Bucharest, Faculty of Architecture
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When it comes to the materials and to the way of performing the conversion, there is an increase in the traditional Romanian symbolism and its significance, in spite of the industrial construction methods and the materials (wood structures, fibreboard). The tree of life, the sun, the stars, the house snake and the wolf teeth, all recurrent traditional patterns, protects the living area and the porch. Additionally, the tree of life covers the dining room and the kitchen, places which are essential for the living, with its branches. Interior views
The windmill with mobile roof (“caciulats”) is a lively proof of the skills of the Romanian wood crafters and a technical jewel. The fascination related to such an object comes also from its spatiality which, as it is explored, reveals all its mechanisms and secrets. Built in a time when it was strictly serving only functional needs (weathering of the grains), the windmill has re-established the aesthetic and symbolic valences as a minimal artistic sanctuary and not necessarily as a permanent residence (in the spirit of “Le Cabanon” house of Le Corbusier).
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The interior space, initially neutral from its functionality, is diversified through extensions and extractions, satisfying the requirements of a modest house and simultaneously accomplishing a reference to the Romanian traditional house spaces (rooms, basement, verandah and porch). interior view
way of performing the conversion, there is an increase in the traditional Romanian symbolism and its significance, in spite of the industrial construction methods and the materials (wood structures, fibreboard). The tree of life, the sun, the stars, the house snake and the wolf teeth, all recurrent traditional patterns, protects the living area and the porch. Additionally, the tree of life covers the dining room and the kitchen, places which are essential for the living, with its branches.
exterior view
When it comes to the materials and to the
Ground floor plan/ 1st floor plan
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elevation
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The project is intended as a cultural and architectural alternative for the wind farms that are more common in the Dobrogea region. It will become a place that will hold arts and crafts workshops, having the opportunity to become self-sufficient in terms of energy. At the same time, it is also a place where Romanian tradition is not kept in incubation, inert as in museums, but rediscovered and passed on.
Section AA
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Articles
th e l ay e rs of a b lu e onion
Author: Helena Patelisová Nationality: Czech location: Prague, Czech Rep./JEPU, Ústí Nad Labem
The Blue Onion is to porcelain what a little black dress is to fashion. Since the time it appeared it won’t really get out of vogue. This evergreen is actually blue and it will never change its colour. Not time but nor the dishwasher have the power to change it. Why is this originally old Asian receipt able to survived centuries and the only way how to get rid of it is to break it? Can we communicate by the way it is used? What happens when the market starts to look jaded? And what is the history of the Blue Onion pattern?
Meissen Plate, photo: http://www.meissen.com/en
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Dish with flaring rim 1403-1424 Ming dynasty Yongle reign Porcelain with cobalt decoration under colorless glaze, photo: www.asia.si.edu
Lets come back to times when “made in china� meant a guarantee of the highest quality. This is where the main inspiration came from. The Chinese had started to produced their fine quality porcelain in the eighth or ninth century. This continued through the late the Yuan dynasty, when its blue and white porcelain component was first produced underglaze cobalt decoration, becoming integral to its design. During the Ming dynasty the Chinese perfected these blue and white wares, and they soon came to represent the virtuosity of the Chinese potter. Jingedezhen became the center of a porcelain industry, and blue and white porcelain became coveted by wealthy Hong Merchants, Buddhists, Emperors, Kings, Popes, Dutch Captains, and everyone in between. There were some special pieces created for the European market as well.
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Europeans become extremely crazed to reproduce porcelain blue ware secret, and when they finally came up with the recipe of porcelain, they mixed the design of its cobalt pattern and the inspiration from Asian patterns together with the stylization that most closely reflected the European feeling for a style of that time (the rhythm and rules of rococo ornamentation). This blue ware, which is called “onion china,â€? was first manufactured by Meissen porcelain in the 18th century. It was copied by other companies through the late 19th century and in that time since almost all European manufactures offered their own version, complete with transfer printed outlines that were coloured in by hand. Nowadays it is still produced and its design has changed very little since. Some rare dishes have a green, red, pink, or black pattern instead of the cobalt blue, but those never became popular as ones created from cobalt. So where is the story about an onion? Actually, the design has nothing to do with the onion motif. Only one of the decorative elements on the plate edges, the pomegranate, remotely resembles the outline of an onion. The whole design is a grouping of several floral motifs, with Japanese peaches and the pomegranates, in the centre of the product are found stylized peonies and asters, and flowing curves around a bamboo stalk. As we mentioned above this decoration is underglaze decoration, which means that the porcelain with cobalt pigment is under a glaze and so this glaze is protecting the motif to any scratches‌
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Dish with flaring rim 1403-1424 Ming dynasty Yongle reign Porcelain with cobalt decoration under colorless glaze, photo: www.asia.si.edu
Here are some versions of this decor:
Many designers, artists, and companies are still working with this traditional pattern. It appears not only on porcelain in this era. How are designers and students dealing with its context and history today? And what are they trying to communicate?
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Atelier Pelcl designed for Ceský Porcelán a.s. this porcelain collection, Bohemia. It is admirable for its complexity and usage of traditional decor in the new way. But at the same time it is quite sad that it is just one of the few new designs produced in that factory. We can see a different usage of Blue Onion in the Ornament and Crime by Maxim Velcovský, where he combines the famous bust of Lenin and the noted Czech Blue Onion design. Velcovský called his work the same as the work of Adolf Loos. Blue Onion reminds us of a tattoo and a quite sad part of Czech history… Another well-known design of his is this porcelain vase Waterproof (2001). The author says that he inverted Sullivans quote ‘form follows function’ into ‘function follows form,’ and so he changed its context so that a rubber Wellington, something designed to keep water out, becomes a porcelain vase to hold water in.
Atelier Pelcl © Cesky Porcelan a.s.
Atelier Pelcl © Cesky Porcelan a.s. Waterproof by Maxim Velcovsky © 2001, photo: www.prague-art.cz
Ornament & Crime by Maxim Velcovsky © 2001
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Porcelain Slippers by Vivien Westwood © 2014 Zagal Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The next product is not connected directly with the onion pattern as it is inspired by Delftware. However, it similarly has the usage of cobalt and depiction of Chinese scenes. Vivien Westwood Barker Shoes Porcelain Slippers are working with a porcelain Orb design and are finished with blue piping. There is no porcelain at all, but somehow it is communicating with its phenomena and contemporary usage in design. I can’t get rid of the feeling that she was just kidding with all of us as usual… But it is also somehow just genial! Jana Kábrtová found her inspiration in the oldest ceramic statue of a nude female known as Venus of Dolní Vestonice in Czech Republic. She dresses it up with a collage from the Blue Onion. As one of the students at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague it was her task to create a souvenir. Jana studies at the Ceramics and Porcelain studio, which is lead by mentioned Maxim Velcovský with its assistant Milan Pekař.
Venus by Jana Kábrtova © 2013, photo from: www.filip-nerad. squarespace.com
Another student project of this studio is a seminar work of Barbora Šimková. Barbora is working with a shape and decor of the cup known as BABICKA (Granny). It is originally produced by Ceský porcelán a.s. She works with its deformation of proportion and decoration. As Barbora says, the cups represent grannies – short, thin, tall or plump ones. The set of a bowls VEGet was created by Aylin Erhanova Irfanova at the JEPU in Ústí nad Labem at the Ceramics Design studio led by Antonín Tomášek and assistant Iva Š. Tattermuschová. The project is nicely dealing with the prejudice we used to have with the onion pattern tableware. This set of salad bowls
Aylin Erhanova Irfanova © 2015, set VEGet, photo by Helena Patelisova
Barbora Simkova © 2015, Babicka – Granny + © Cesky porcelan a.s.
from a distance is creating the impression of a “traditional” Blue Onion (that has nothing in common with an onion as we mentioned above). But from close up of Aylin’s bowl we can see that there are just things suitable for a preparation of salad as onion, tomato and other vegetables…
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Lastly is a student project created in the same studio by Katka Borovcová. It uses a form of traditional Blue Onion of Ceský porcelán a.s. and goes three dimensional with it. This recessed relief itself is not so visible until we pour a substance in it (some oil or balsamic) and suddenly we see a surprise waiting for us after finishing our dish. Katka shows that for referring to a tradition it is not nec-
Katka Borovcova bowls © 2015, photo by Helena Patelisova
essary to copy its form. I like how her bowls work with
theirs usage because of the fact that for seeing a pattern we need to really use them! We can say that the Blue Onion story is the story of quotation of quotation and adaptation of adaptation. Somehow it seems that the layers of the Blue Onion will probably never stop evolving through the years and being adapted to the different cultural styles and contemporary age where we live in… And so I dare to say that if not any of its forms than its tale will never be démodé.
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Graphics/ Posters
VEGET URIZE
Author: Devi Petti, Elena Monteleone Nationality: Italian location: Rome WEBSITE: behance.net/devipetti, behance.net/elemonteleone Function: Poster USED SOFTWARE: Adobe Photoshop CS6/Indesign Year: 2015
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“Vegeturize� is a collection of posters that emphasizes the concept of looking at things beyond their appearances.
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Project/Architecture
H ow to prot e ct the know l e d e g e of a city ?
Author: Anca Ioana Ionescu Nationality: Romanian City and date of birth: Craiova, 16.07.1989 CONTACTS: anca.ionescuu@gmail.com Function: Public Library Site location: Abandoned industrial metal hall in Craiova historical core Year: 2014 Institution: IMUAU Bucharest, Faculty of Architecture Tutors: Georgica Mitrache, Dragos Dordea
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The project for a public library in Craiova learns from Calvino’s city of Zenobia, where the consumerist population buries the city in its own history, and from Asimov’s Terminus, a planetary library meant to preserve the knowledge of humanity. The current public library of Craiova occupies a 200 sqm house. Historical research and space syntax depicts an area that is both in the geometrical and historical core of the city: a 11.600 sqm parcel that lays empty in the dense historical city center.
Aerial image
Bratasanu Hall, a 1910 heritage building sits on site along later additions dating from 1948 (the furnace), 1970 (ruins of an extended industrial park) and an 1995 office buildings. In the city, a number of similar decommissioned “castle hangars” lie unused and forgotten, many of which have been downgraded, disfigured or demolished. Upgrading the Bratasanu Hall could be the starting point for a regeneration strategy of these industrial relics. The heritage building will be protected and up cycled, and the furnace will be kept as a statement of a changing point in history: a central garden which used to gather an encounter of personal worlds turned into an industrial park.
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Concept diagrams
Outlining the inner limits of the sorrouding blocks, the site is a consistentlimit in itself. The structure of the limit is recovered in a virtual collage, in which the parcels found in 1860-2013 maps are put together with the agressive interventions done by the communists after 1948. This juxtaposition of limits uncovers an area of limit transition that adjusts the formal buildable area. The new plan places pavilionar volumes along an inner public garden.
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The library occupies the central workshop hall and continues with a new underground gallery which pops up towards the garden with two additional volumes: the cafe and the conference building. The existing houses on this block sit on elder cellars (1830) which are interconnected. The proposed new gallery follows this hidden story and uses the ascendent topography of the site (+6.5m). The 1948 truck path, initially cut in the block, becomes a pedestrian walkway.
Library - 1st floor plan
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Library - 2nd floor plan
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Ground floor plan
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Underground gallery plan
Section
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The interaction between the old workshop and the new library will be set up through metal structures that cross the main hall, climb the furnace
The panoramic tower
and continue with the underground gallery. The metal structure which occupies the main hall develops following the successive positions that an existing metal bridge used to occupy in the room. The old bridge used to carry massive metal pieces. The new structure will carry books. The 1948 tower becomes the main entrace apparatus of the library, but also a binocular to visually connect with the city. It will be occupied by a metal climbing stair that follows the traces of existing metal leftovers.
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Library - main hall
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Site models
Telling a non-linear spatial story, the project opens a new book for future socities, revealing forgotten stories. The plan is open to change and the story remains unfinished.
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Articles
More aca demical qua l ifications for b e tte r ideas ? Author: Giulia Fioravera Nationality: Italian location: Berlin, Germany
Is it really required to focus our studies on a very specific field to be a good designer? Wouldn’t a wide knowledge lead us to the best ideas? In fact nowadays ideas have more and more relevance within our profession. Speaking about this topic with a curator based in Berlin, it came to light that the creative industry is strongly inclined to “concepts” and “virtual products” instead of pragmatism and the product itself. Which brings us to the question: Which kind of designer will conceive the best quality ideas? In observing some of the contemporary European realities (Italian, English and partly the German) and on the other hand the north European one, different design approaches can be pinpointed. The first reality, probably arrived from the USA, shows a tendency to a “super-specialization” made of a Bachelor, a MA program and finally various PHDs. The second one consists of the alternation between studies and working experiences which can provoke a change of course. But what are the “super-specialization” tendency reasons?
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Bert Simon - portraits by paper
Reasons of time: Many students prefer to stay in school and enrich their knowledge to postpone, this way, the difficult job inclusion process. Many professors also suggest them to linger in academy in order to acquire more cultural elements. Socio-economical reasons: Young people can easily feel on their skin the difficulty, discomfort and uncertainty of the future. Therefore, they don’t understandably dare to embark on multiple studies in order to choose their favourite. They would rather pick one and focus on it until the end. Market reasons: The creative industry is always chosen by more people. To rise in the ranks within this field, many designers opt for a “niche” in an almost unheard-of area in which they can pioneer, or where there is a skill gap they can fullfill. Sometimes, in order to make a choice, they consider the market needs instead of following their own passions or interests-as if designers shall support that market or take benefit of it. In addition to that, in many cases to apply for some job opportunities in many design studios, an MA degree is specifically required…
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Alongside the ‘super-specialization’ there is also the ‘holistic’ approach. For those who don’t know what that is, it is helpful to read a suggested definition given during a student’s visit to one of the most prestigious design studios in Helsinki, Pentagon Design. The defined point was that wide competences which encompass several fields, maybe not directly related to design, are necessary to create something innovative and of value. This tendency to take advantage of every discipline can derive from: ◊◊ A more or less stable and solid market which lower the fear not to find a job position ◊◊ A socio-economical situation able to encourage to experimentations and trials dictated by the personal free choice and interests ◊◊ A different approach to studies. There is the habit to work for a while after receiving a bachelor’s degree in order to test the profession (and maybe conclude in in the decision to pursue graduate studies in a different field) ◊◊ The government subventions and the free instruction whose result is the persistence in schools. (Many students older than 30 years old make more than those with a single degree)
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PENTAGON DESIGN STUDIO, HELSINKI
Truth is that the country where designers study doesn’t necessarily correspond with the country where they are going to get employed. This evidence can bring to contrasts and misunderstandings as well as compensations and interesting cooperations. This creates globalization and a frontiers-opened world, but also the progressively growing local realities give us designers the input to question ourselves about the correspondence between quantity and quality within our field. Do several academical qualifications make us better as ideas creators? What do we really need to improve?
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Adam and Eve, 1598-1600 by Peter Paul Rubens
If we look back to XVII century when many intellectuals and artists used to visit Italy and spend there from 3 month to 8 years seeking quality, we can notice how learning and education passes through various disciplines and the contact with different intellectual and pragmatic worlds. We can recall many prestigious figures who made the “Grand Tour”, but, in this case, maybe the most appropriate can be the Flemish painter Paul Rubens. His suitability derives from the fact that he was a intellectual, a languages expert, a politician and a diplomatic in addiction to an artist. He had a complex personality and he was capable to take his whole baggage of knowledge into his painting specialization: the “incarnato”. A journey seeking quality and learning… can the contemporary “Grand Tour” be constituted by the Biennale, the Salone del Mobile and the various Fashion design weeks all over the world? Who knows. Still, aside from the journey topic, competition wants us designers to be more and more exclusive but able at the same time to have a global overview. Each design approach has its pros and cons, so once again it’s designers’ turn to decide.
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Articles/Interview
A rchitectur e schoo l from a sc enog raphic pe rspe cti v e Author: Rotating editor Bucharest Nationality: Romanian location: Bucharest, Romania
“In my opinion, school has the important role to teach you how to think, not what to think. Architecture means art and art means thinking. It’s not all about talent. The talent will come out sooner or later.”
Octavian Neculai is a professor from the University of Architecture and Urbanism “Ion Mincu” from Bucharest, well known by the students as a young spirit and an open-minded person. Besides this, the theatre world reaveals him as an unconventional stenographer. He has shared with us a little of his professional experience and wants to send a message to students. Let’s find out what he has to say!
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Octavian Neculai
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Who guided you on the path of architecture? What made you decide that you want to study architecture? Octavian Neculai: It happened like this…in the 9th grade I started
drawing, being challenged by some family friends who were architects. They succeeded in arousing my curiosity for architecture. After this, I kept drawing until I finished high school and I even did an internship as a draftsperson in a studio. Meanwhile, this started to grow on me more than I thought it would at the beginning and I decided to apply for Architecture College. The admission exam was not an easy one for me, but I persevered and decided to go further. In the third year of college, I started enjoying architecture in the way I enjoy it now, I started seeing it with other eyes and understanding it better. However, there was an oscillating moment, after I met Ciulei, that made me also want to study scenography, but I will never regret the fact that I chose architecture.
How do you manage to combine architecture with scenography? Octavian Neculai: How do I combine them? Well it’s very simple. I be-
lieve that the concept of space is the same for architecture and also for scenography. The difference is only the fact that architecture is eternal, at least it should be, and scenography has a lack of longevity about it. The problem of dealing with a space remains always the same for me. Regarding this, I learned a lot from Ciulei. He started with scenography and later in life, he caught the architecture “disease” and regretted that he didn’t start with that in the first place. The way you arrange the actual objects is rather different, but the basic problem of managing a space remains the same. Otherwise, all great architects are tempted to express themselves through scenography, because of its ephemeral setup and its immediate effects.
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How did you perceive architecture school as a student and how do you see it now as a professor? Octavian Neculai: There is, indeed, a big difference. The old school,
based on the “beaux arts” model, it might not have had the rigorousness that the school uses today, but it had a certain charm, that is sadly lost now. It used to be our place, where we enjoyed meeting and spending time. The fact that we worked together made us feel like little units in a big team. This cohesion seems to be missing these days. Our documentation was harder to get, but the desire to learn new things existed. For example we had some folders with handmade sketches made in the library, based on photographs of buildings, made by other architects. Because we didn’t have the technology that is available today, we used to copy texts from books and magazines. Academic life was also different regarding our relationship with our teachers. I am not necessarily saying that it was better, but even if we perceived them as untouchable gods and we had a great respect for them, our relationship was a warm one. We were like a family, the architects were a completely separated family from the others.
What do you expect from your students? How would you improve the relationship between a teacher and his architecture students? Octavian Neculai: I would like the students to be more open in hav-
ing a dialogue with their teacher. Maybe you will say that this should also come from the teacher. Of course there are dissatisfactions from both parts. Probably most of these problems come from a cruel reality, but there are also some artificially created issues. The truth lays in the middle and we should all try to be fair. This would happen if the teachers were more relaxed and open minded in their relations with their students. An individual’s way of thinking should not be restricted, it should be free. Moreover, being a teacher means sharing. You cannot do this without giving. On the other hand, the students should be more receptive. I would like to see the day when the students will become, not necessarily equal to the teachers, but strong and confident interlocutors. For example I see the silence of our students as something negative. This silence shows, on many occasions, the timidity of the students, but it can also express their lack of knowledge and vocabulary. And regarding the respect, I think it’s another problem and it should come from both sides, there is no other way.
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Do you think that under the pretext of a competition, students become more motivated, while working at their school projects? Octavian Neculai: Definitely. A competition raises the student’s moti-
vation, if it has credibility. At their age they apply easily and enthusiastically to any kind of competitions, if the results have real value. Even if you don’t win the big prize, it still helps you to get used to a competitive environment and develop your creativity.
Do you believe that fresh graduated students are prepared for conducting architecture in real life?
Octavian Neculai: This discussion has two aspects that I would like to highlight. Firstly, we have a discussion regarding a certain theme. I tell you what is right and what is wrong, and even if, often, I don’t succeed to convey my thoughts the way you expect me to, I will most certainly still give you something to think about. I believe that this is extraordinary. So from this point of view, I think yes, school is preparing you for real life. If we talk from a technical point of view, that after you graduate you will be able to make any project happen, my answer is no. I don’t believe in this and I think nobody should want this to happen. In my opinion, school has the important role to teach you how to think, not what to think. Architecture means art and art means thinking. It’s not all about talent. The talent will come out sooner or later. I am not even talking about the appreciation of talent, from society as a whole, which is a subjective matter.
As a conclusion we would like you to share some thoughts about Bucharest.
Octavian Neculai: Bucharest is divided in my head in many beautiful slices. Some parts of Bucharest are really beautiful. It is very beautiful during spring and autumn, when nature contributes a nice touch. However, winter reveals a part of the truth. Buildings that represent contemporary architectural design, even if some of them have architectural value, they still seem out of context. I think that this is the biggest problem. I mean, sure, during the communist period, many things changed the face of the city. Many buildings suffered or have been abandoned because of the ignorance, and lack of care of the owners or society. Some of the streets have lost their charm, but we still cannot ignore the history of this city. The biggest fault belongs to the authorities, who don’t have a long term strategy, even if they received a lot of proposals from specialists.
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Project/Architecture
in be tw een
Author: Cristina Popescu Nationality: Romanian City and date of birth: Bucharest, 05.07.1990 CONTACTS: cristina.anda.popescu@usi.ch, http://issuu. com/cristinapopescu8/docs/cristina_popescu_portfolio Function: Collective housing Site location: Bucharest, Romania Year: 2013 Institution: IMUAU Bucharest, Faculty of Architecture Tutors: Dorin Stefan
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In the journey from “A big village” to “Little Paris” and continuing with modernism and communism, Bucharest developed a variety of dwelling types that explains its present variegated image. Under a closer look, we can discover patterns of living that used to be very characteristic of the city, but seemed to have been lost along the way – the use for intermediary spaces.
Longitudinal section
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Ground floor plan
The lack of gradual transitions from the public street to the individual dwelling culminated in the communist era and also affected social behaviour. People soon became introverted and lost the notion of “public/common space�.
1st floor plan
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2nd floor plan
The small events inside the rigid apartment building became the only reason binding the people together. A new food recipe could gather enthusiastic neighbours around the kitchen, or a hair salon opened in a bathroom could show that the most unexpected places in a house can become the centre for social expression.
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For the assignment, we had to choose from sixteen sites along Calea Mosilor Street. Located near the centre of Bucharest, in a protected historical area, the region contains buildings from different times that marked the evolution of the city.
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Understanding the use of intermediary spaces, as well as the consequences of their absence, help develop a new typology of dwellings that adapts to new needs for living. Everyday activities are pushed out of the apartment, opening them to social interaction. Only the bedroom, bathroom and a small area for cooking remain private, while the kitchen, dining room, living room and office etc. are all part of an open saloon, occupying most of the floor area. The public ground floor unifies the street with the construction and the back yard, allowing direct access into the neighbouring existing buildings.
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Bucharest dwelling typologies: house with garden, commercial house with verandas, modernist apartment building, communist apartment block, new typology
Elevation
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Cutout
ELEGA N T PEOPLE CUT OUT
Every month on 3NTA new cutouts (.png) ready to use in your renderings and collage.
Author: Nicola Vecchio Nationality: Italian location: Romagnano Sesia/L.A.S Felice Casorati Function: Series of elegant people cut out USED SOFTWARE: Adobe Photoshop CS6 Year: 2015
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Articles
A rchit ectur e and d e m e ntia
Author: Anežka Prokopová Nationality: Czech location: Berlin, Germany
Due to our aging population, numbers of people with dementia are constantly increasing, while both the cause and the cure are still unknown. At the end of a lifetime, after all a person has been through, it is hard to let go. It is hard to let go of home, of memories, of oneself.
Due to the disease, cognitive functions are lowered or lost and many things become insecure. One’s life falls apart in pieces and is gradually stripped to pure, basic sensations and emotions. Without any reasoning ability, people with dementia gradually become lost in space and time. They are no longer able to adapt the surrounding environment to their needs and become therefore extremely dependent on what others arrange for them. [1]
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With only basic abilities remaining, learned motoring, instincts and occasional awakenings, it becomes hard to perform everyday tasks as well as to find a way through a building. Thanks to architecture and dementia being my graduation topic, I realized that: learning from dementia is a great chance to reflect on what really matters in space and what are the simple, essential things people truly enjoy. It leads to thoughts about how space can help us enhance the very basic enjoyments of our true self even when we no longer remember which those are.
Lost in Space and Time © own illustration
Life sphere and dementia Š own illustration
Within our hyper-cognitive society, which values and requires fast adaptation and constant learning, being diagnosed any kind of dementia means bearing a stigma of uselessness and disability, nevertheless one’s previous status. It means being excluded from the society’s centre not only economically and socially, but also literally by means of being moved from home into a special care unit. With no way back and no other place to go, many people spend last years of their lives in such situation, dependent on help of others. Involuntarily bounded to the space provided, they experience less and less changes of environments as they no longer have the need or the right to do so.
With dementia progressing, life outside of the caring home becomes more demanding and their life sphere gradually shrinks. At a certain point, it shrinks in between walls of the care unit and continues till the point where it becomes the person himself and his immediate bodily surroundings[2]. In the late stage of dementia, one single room becomes the whole world.
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In this sense, designs of such places are clearly an extremely sensitive matter to work with. Their importance is immense, yet tremendously fragile to grasp because they have to work with what is left deep inside our minds and bodies when the disease progresses. Because of that, it requires lot of attention and apprehension to deal with them correctly. It requires understanding of dementia and its consequences as well as apprehension of demented peoples’ perspectives. The latter is especially crucial because people with dementia are very often excluded from the design process, although they know best what is most suitable for them.
Dementia and space Š own illustration
This process of learning and improving can not only help people with dementia feel more comfortable, but it can also help architects broaden their sense of space, its boundaries, and qualities. It can help enlarge their notion of environment when seen through the eyes of the challenged.
People with dementia are not the only disabled community and there are many ways of perceiving space and architecture. Approximately 15% of the world’s population live with some disability and therefore with a different perspective and perception of our shared environment. Disabled people form the largest minority in the world and offer a great opportunity to understand and accept different forms of receptions not only to architects. In countries with life expectancy over 70 years, people spend about 8 years of their lives disabled in a certain way.[3] It is therefore worth understanding and accepting various notions of space where disabilities, including dementia, offer a guiding hand. It is becoming even more urgent as numbers of people affected are unfortunately constantly increasing, showing no decline. At the same time, designing for dementia is a great chance to take a step back and reflect on the society as a whole. It is an opportunity to shift our focus back towards the basic, sensory experience of architecture which is to provide shelter and enrich our lives.[4]
Environments which are safe, aesthetically pleasing through materials, lights, sounds or scale and proportions are beneficial to all of us, no matter the diagnosis.
[1] Dementia, Design and Technology : Time to Get Involved, ed. Britt Östlund Päivi Topo, vol. 24, Assistive Technology Research Series (2009). [2] G. Marquardt and P. Schmieg, “Dementia-Friendly Architecture: Environments That Facilitate Wayfinding in Nursing Homes,” Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen 24, no. 4 (2009). [3] United Nations Enable, “Factsheet on Persons with Disabilities,” in Development and human rights for all, ed. Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations Secretariat). [4] Eckhard Feddersen, Lost in Space: Architecture and Dementia, ed
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ISSUE # 5/ May 2015
STAFF
In this issue
Editor in chief Luca De Stefano
communication manager Marco Mattia Cristofori
ART DIRECTORS Giulia Fioravera AGNESE Laguzzi
co-founder Lorenzo Bottiglieri
EDITORIAL STAFF ELENA Monteleone
ROTANTING EDITOR Ramona Deaconu Karina Panculescu Cosmina Colceriu
WRITERS Aga Batkiewicz Anežka Prokopová helena Patelisová Giulia Fioravera
DESIGNERS Mara Ciubotaru Diana Singuran Alexandru Cristian Besliu Alexandru Stefan Vasiliu’ Anca Ioana Ionescu Cristina Popescu NICOLA Vecchio VALERIA Loreti DEEPA Parapatt DEVI Petti
ELENA Monteleone
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