Anca Balota // Architecture Portfolio 2016-2021 by Anca Balota

ANCA BALOTĂ | 2016 - 2021

HELLO, I am Anca and this portfolio is the beginning of my architectural story. I am excited about this journey and I hope you will be too. An enthusiastic and communicative student, I am always striving to improve and to learn more. I can adapt to difficult, stressful situations while keeping a positive mind. I am passionate about all the things that surround me, open-minded, well organized and able to work well both in a team and individually. I’m keen on contemporary architecture that respects and coexists with nature as well as on traditional, historical architecture. The projects below are indicative of my approach.

Curriculum Vitae

ANCA-LORENA BALOTĂ / Architecture student

PERSONAL

SOFTWARE

Contact

Email: anca.balota@yahoo.com Phone: 0764430551 issuu.com/ancabalota

Languages

Romanian

/ native

English

/ Reading / Writing / Speaking / Listening

Spanish

/ Reading / Writing / Speaking / Listening

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe InDesign AutoCad Rhinoceros Revit 3dsMax Adobe After Effects

EDUCATION

2014 - present

“Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism

Faculty of Architecture: Bachelor’s and Master’s degree, Bucharest - Project courses with: Françoise Pamfil (2014-2015), Mihaela Pelteacu (2015-2017), Silvia Costescu (2018), Vladimir Arsene (2018-2019) - Earned merit scholarship in 3 years

2017 - 2018

Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid

Erasmus exchange programme - one semester in Madrid, Spain - Project course with Emilio Tuñón Arquitectos - Finished the Infographics course with honors

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

2010 - 2014

“Tudor Vianu” National High School of Computer Science

March 2019

Bucharest-lab International Workshop

Bucharest, Romania

“Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism - Experienced old neighborhoods of Bucharest together with students and teachers from other countries that shared with me their view on this city. - Designed a project inspired by the wagon-house typology as a member of Team 6 - coordinated by C. Fontaine, G. Ledent, Ch. Salembier.

August 2018

Restoration camp at Bánffy Castle, Cluj

Practical training with the guidance of specialised craftsmen - Vault restoration and rendering + experimented with specialised techniques for mural decorations (fresco, secco, sgraffito, stucco)

OTHER INTERESTS

Self learning through reading and browsing UI/UX design Experimenting with the sewing machine Having a low impact on the environment Practicing sports

Contents

A SCHOOL FOR THE NEIGHBOURHOOD pag.6

MEMORIAL IN ALEPPO pag.26

SOLACOLU - SCHOOL OF PERFORMING ARTS pag.18

WALKWAYS IN OTOPENI pag.50

A COMMUNITY IN STRĂULEȘTI pag.44

PACHE CINEMA pag.38

GREEN ADDITION ON HRISTO BOTEV pag.56

A HOME IN A FUTURE pag.60

MATACHE MARKET pag.32

The approach of the project relates to two landmarks in the history of the school architecture program: the palaestra and the monastery school. They reflect the two opposite modes of socio-spatial relationship between child, school and city. The school of Greek antiquity absorbs people to its inner universe and flexibly combines educational activities with sports and recreation, and the latter, in contrast, follows the cloistering of monastic schools closing to urbanity, becoming inaccessible and rigid in operation.

A SCHOOL FOR THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

No. 87 Primary and Middle School in Bucharest

Coordinators: Mihaela Pelteacu, Basarab Cheșca (UAUIM, București) Software used: Revit, 3ds Max, AutoCad, Photoshop

The diploma project presents a solution through which the school, without altering the intrinsic educational act, can respond to the social, cultural and recreational needs of the neighborhood it serves, creating spaces that can be used outside the program by the whole community. In this way, the lack of common facilities in communist neighborhoods can be ameliorated by creating public spaces in the access area and by the extensive use of school facilities. Through the proposed intervention, a separation of the primary and secondary education cycles is achieved, thus managing that the architecture of the space responds accordingly to the different requirements of the users. The two bodies follow the directions illustrated by the palaestra model, in which the spaces intertwine, are flexible and the circulations are extended, becoming the common place of the students. Both have an orientation towards the central, interior space, which flows and remains permanently connected with all school functions.

This art school is located on Calea Moșilor, an old trading avenue in the center of Bucharest. The final project is divided into three sections: the old Solacolu Inn, which got converted into a school of visual arts; the new addition (“the gallery”), which hosts the three performance arts - drama, music and dance; and the bigger theater in the back of the site.

SOLACOLU - SCHOOL OF PERFORMING ARTS

Team-mate: Florin Bucur

Coordinators: Silvia Costescu, Adrian Moleavin, Irina Florea, Irina Calotă (UAUIM, București) Software used: Revit, AutoCad, Photoshop, Rhino

The focal point of the project is the manner of attachment of the new to the already existing. Right from the beginning, we had a feeling that the long exposed blind wall of the Inn (constructed around 1859) shouldn’t become hidden, having such a strong appearance. Additionally, Calea Moșilor being so narrow is making the Inn’s facade very difficult to see from a distance. After the analysis of the site we had the surprise of discovering that even though the design of the Inn was developed to be included in a continuous front of the buildings, it has actually never been covered since its construction. This reinforced our idea because we realized that this is actually the monument’s image imprinted in people’s memory over the time: its highly ornamented front facade, together with its long side blind brick wall. Building a new construction attached to it whilst keeping it alive as a distinctive image became our challenge.

Facade towards Calea Moșilor

Facade towards Dr. Paleologu Street

In order to create the desired detachment from the blind wall, but at the same time to have a direct connection between the new and the old buildings, we decided to intervene with a fully glazed element, which became a large urban room. The room’s relation with the rest of the urban tissue was done through several independent, more massive elements, which manage to volumetrically balance the new proposal. They better anchor the glass room to the ground and help to create the much-needed privacy.

A-A’ Section

C-C’ Section

B-B’ Section

Ground floor

First floor

Second floor

Since it’s a performing arts school, we tried to create as many opportunities for students to have direct contact with the public through several types of stages. On the ground floor there are five: a central one, which is also a central distribution space; another one towards the Paleologu Street, which has a privileged position and has the power to bring the passersby from two directions; a third one which is the main theater built as a black box; and the exterior one which has the benefits that it can be used for spontaneous representations. The higher floors contain the rehearsal rooms, studying rooms and the administrative spaces. The Inn completes the art school through a number of fine arts and crafts workshops on the first floor, and it directly connects with the new body through an old hollow that was subsequently sealed, but retains a visible trace in the blind wall.

MEMORIAL IN ALEPPO

Coordinators: Emilio Tuñón Álvarez, Ángela García de Paredes de Falla, Ignacio García Pedrosa, Luis Rojo de Castro (ETSAM, Madrid) Software used: Rhino, Photoshop, Illustrator

Aleppo was destroyed because of a civil war. This means that a population, which at first was united (neighbors, friends, colleagues) ended by dividing itself in two. With the end of this civil war, the most important and appreciated change should be its unity. This memorial can actually be a symbol of friendship, activity, community. By bringing here, in a place of former destruction, the functions that bring people together, you honor the peace that came after the destruction.

View towards the mosque from the citadel, before the war

The Khusruwiyah Mosque was almost entirely destroyed by the armed opposition during the Battle of Aleppo in summer 2014. The only standing part is the row of dorms of its madrasa to the North. From a satellite image, you observe now a big crater left from the bomb that turned a monument of architecture into ruins. It is quite ironic that destruction can actually create such a pure shape, like the circle. These two forms became the focal points for the project. They are highlighted as a permanent reminder to create a monument that commemorates the past, the present and the future.

Longitudinal section

Transversal section

0.6

0.7

0.2

4.5

1.0

11m

In this exercise we were encouraged to use the multiplication of a simple module as a means to create complex spaces. The flexibility of the places it can create, the strong squared shape and its materiality drove me to choose Nervi’s module, but with some alterations to fit the scale of the project. The umbrellas have the power to protect and to mark very clearly a central space - letting it open to the street in the same time. This duality between open and closed, dark and light, or despair and hope is constant throughout the design. The Palace of Labor, Turin

MATACHE MARKET

Team-mates: Alexandra Ioniță, Mihnea Tudor Coordinators: Vladimir Arsene, Mihai Duțescu, Letiția Bărbuică (UAUIM, București) Software used: Revit, Photoshop, Enscape

This project tackles a deconstructed area in the center of Bucharest that is still an open wound for a lot of locals. Recently, a new boulevard has been cut here and many buildings had to be demolished, including a beloved architectural monument - The Matache Hall Market. We chose to work with this new infrastructure but also with the valuable architecture that survived here. All the enlisted architectural monuments that act as testimony of the abrupt and controversial evolution of the site were kept and carefully integrated into the new three buildings. The biggest challenge for us was to create a unified image of all three parts and this drove us to experiment with regular shapes like squares and circles, which helped us to create three distinct centralities that are also well connected in between.

Section through the whole ensemble: Bus Station + Hotel, Matache Agri-Market and Food-court + Museum of the Cinema

The first unit of the ensemble builds the visual and functional connection of the new Matache Market with the Central Train Station of Bucharest. After only a 5-minute walk from there, you arrive at the Bus Station with the Hotel that floats on top of it. Above the first level of the Bus Station, an accessible roofscape slopes down towards the main Matache Market. Around this central building, you can find a ramp that starts on the ground floor, collecting the pedestrians, and ends up by connecting the Market with the last unit, which contains the Food-court, and above it, The Museum of the Cinema. In the square that forms in front of the Market you can find a Memorial for the lost Matache neighborhood and all the old areas of Bucharest that were demolished to make room for the “modernization”.

Public access floor of the whole ensemble

View towards the Market from Buzești Street

View towards the Bus Station and Hotel from Gării de Nord Street

View towards the Food Court from the courtyard

View towards the whole development from Buzești Street

Located in a residential neighborhood, the old Cinema Pache (also known as Cinema Popular) was sitting abandoned right in the heart of an ongoing street festival. Its rich historical background and close connection to the street showed the space’s potential to become a cultural and recreational center again. The project’s idea was to turn it into a new concept of cinema that besides the traditional version of movie projections would also encompass other activities. During the street festival, the building can open itself entirely via the multiple side doors.

PACHE CINEMA

Coordinators: Codina Dușoiu, Ana Mohonea (UAUIM, București) Software used: Revit, 3dsMax, Photoshop

The core of the old theater is now an “outdoor” plaza. The old cinema was reinvented into a multi-purpose, recreational space, which offers movie screenings, hosts theater performances, presentations and conferences along with food and drinks. To access the plaza you first enter through the lobby where you find a darker atmosphere that amplifies the interior vs. exterior general feel of the space. A doorway leads through to the “yard” where a large skylight brings daylight, flooding the space. Here you can find multiple seating options. In the center, the beach chairs and tables can be rearranged at will and together with the stands made of plywood board, they form a small public square focused around the stage and bar.

Longitudinal Section

Transversal Section

Ground floor

First floor

Bar - Front view

Bar - Transversal Section

Wanting to live closer together, nine friends decided to buy some land together and build all their houses side by side. A self-chosen community. The lot they’ve found is in Străulești, right in its center, surrounded by two other empty sites and facing the school. The focus in this project became the concept of private vs. shared and of intimacy vs. exposure. Taking into consideration the separation between this community and the street, instead of a two meter high linear perimeter wall that would have been very hostile, we experimented with the concept of limit and added more depth to the separation between sidewalk and front entrance. The proposed progressive route maintains the safe psychological comfort desired by residents, while maintaining a good relation to the surrounding neighbors.

A COMMUNITY IN STRĂULEȘTI

Team-mate: Mihai Dobre

Coordinators: Mihaela Pelteacu, Matei Vlăsceanu, Silvia Diaconu, Bogdan Mihăilă (UAUIM, București) Software used: AutoCad, Photoshop

Typical strong separation in Străulești

Our proposal

Ground floor

First floor

The way of reaching to your house is very important. By having all the common spaces open to the central yard together with the main entrances, we could maintain a high chance of encounter and conversation. Additionally, most of the exterior space is shared, but each family has its own gardens that act as extensions to their living spaces. While the bedrooms’ gardens are entirely closed and intimate, the living room has a green space opening toward the central yard to keep the conversations going.

North-South section

East-West section

One of the houses from the ground floor

Otopeni has been abruptly transformed into a city during Nicolae Ceaușescu’s time by replacing the semi-detached houses on the main road (DN1) with four-story high apartment buildings. However, his Systematization Plan was suddenly stopped during the Revolution, whilst the construction on the western part has never even started. Since then, no other urban plan has been developed, which led to chaotically growth on both sides of the road. Nevertheless, the close proximity to Bucharest, together with the national importance of Otopeni’s Airport and the soon soon arrival of the underground railway are sure bets that the image of this town will change a lot in the years to come. By replacing the precarious state of the current walkways, this proposal aims to strengthen the connection of the two separate parts of the city for the locals and to create a more unified and structured image of the town for the passersby.

WALKWAYS IN OTOPENI

Coordinators: Vladimir Arsene, Mihai Duțescu, Letiția (UAUIM, București) Software used: Rhino, Illustrator, Photoshop

The necessity of reaching the bus stations and of having access to the main facilities of a city like schools, city hall, medical centers, banks creates a problem for the locals of having to cross the DN1 multiple times, every day. By adding depth to the bridges to incorporate small commercial spaces, waiting rooms for the busses, displays for local announcements or small exhibitions, this daily need of passing could come with opportunities, making it much more convenient for the people. In order to create an unified image, the design starts with a basic element composed by its anchor to the ground and the crossover part. By multiplying it, you can create solutions for all the different scenarios that this route offers.

This rooftop extension sits in contrast to the surrounding neighborhood. Pedestrian wise, Hristo Botev Boulevard is very crowded, teeming with cars and people going in all directions. Being located right in the center, the traffic is always high, the vegetation is missing, all the sidewalks are narrow and full of obstacles and the continuous front of buildings have contrasting materials, colors and rhythm. The idea of a green addition came as a need of a visual break in all this clutter. It pops up as a breath of fresh air (quite literally).

GREEN ADDITION ON HRISTO BOTEV

Coordinators: Silvia Costescu, Adrian Moleavin, Irina Florea, Irina Calota (UAUIM, București) Software used: Rhino, Photoshop, 3dsMax

Third floor render

The proposal comes with three additional floors of flexible multidisciplinary working spaces on top of the two-storey building, which turns from a regular house into a bistro. What looks like a thick green barrier from the outside, it’s actually a thin layer of vegetation that allows a lot of light to flow inside. Additional natural light also enters through the central yard. Seconf floor render

Ground floor

First floor

Transversal section

Second floor

Third floor

Fourth floor

Longitudinal section

The future is unpredictable and hard to imagine. Think about the people from 50 years ago who imagined the present days with flying cars, but they couldn’t predict a world in which every person will carry a super smart computer that fits in their pocket and is connected to a world-wide-web. A person from the past could call a dishwasher “a food-holder-cleaning-box”, the bathroom a “waterfrom-walls-room” or an airplane a “sky-ship”. By questioning the meaning of our everyday objects, we can imagine and name things from the future. Even if that future is imagined by us based on escalated present trends, the actual future will be different. That is why this project encourages an approach of understanding the world and the home and does not shape an exact and precise future.

A HOME IN A FUTURE

Architecture competition - THE HOME COMPETITION Team-mates: Mihaela Constantin, Mihai Dobre Coordinator: Mihai Chisărău (UAUIM, București) Software used: AutoCad, Photoshop

This home is decomposed in two parts: one that covers the basic human needs, which we imagined as a shell, and one unique part, the style, taste and ambient of the home which is stored in a small sphere, like a memory card. People can travel from shell to shell, all over the world, and still have the essence of their home with them.

Thank you for your attention!

Anca Balotă

anca.balota@yahoo.com 0764430551