p o r t f o l i o
Anca Paninopol
studies 2013-2015 2004-2010 2000-2004
KU Leuven Master of Architecture, Sint Lucas Brussels “Urban Projects. Urban Cultures” Dissertation Paper: Reconfigured Landscape in Oslo Diploma Project: Reconfigued Landscape in Oslo TU Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Studies Dissertation Paper: Urban Regenration Diploma Project: Conference Center in Cluj-Napoca, RO Theoretical Highschool “E. Hurmuzachi” Radauti, Romania mathematics-informatics section
work experience 2015-present Omgeving cvba, Antwerp, BE social housing competition, swimming pools competitions, co-housing schemes, presentations and renders, volumetric studies, building permits, etc. 2014 researcher Bruno Meeus of VUB, BE romanian immigrats in Brussels 2012-2013 ateliermass, Cluj, RO design sheets and concepts, technical details 2011-2012 ADG Proiect, Cluj, RO building permits, zonal urban plans, architectural design. 2008-2011 A4Architecture, Cluj, RO (part-time student job) measurements and architectural design, building permits, design sheets
c u r r i c u l u m
v i t a e
anca paninopol nickname: anca pani date of birth: 23.09.1985 nationality: romanian adress: steenbokstraat 37 bus4, antwerpen 2018 e-mail: pani.anca@gmail.com m.phone: +32 470 966 836
I grew up in small town in northern Romania and I left it at 19 when I started the architectural studies. Once a beautiful place, my home town faces today an extreme state of dereliction which keeps me thinking of methods that would improve the life of its inabitants and determine the youh to return home. This is an issue I grew aware of while studying at Sint Lucas Brussels in the Urban Projects/Urban Cultures program where the studios focused on urban design, leading the student through all the scales of thinking and designing, from the macro urban context to the micro architectural detail. For this matter my interest grew on topics such as neoliberalism, dereliction, immigration and urban design.
workshops 07.2014 RE-Public, Istanbul, TR- organized by TU Istanbul, Faculty of Architecture (Taskisla) future scenarios for Taksim Square and Gezi Park 02.2010 Riverside, Cluj, RO-organized by Planwerk Office of Urbanism quick simple solutions to transform the river bank of Cluj 02.2010 RE-presentations, Cluj, RO-organized by TU Cluj, Faculty of Architecture corelating the design concept with the presentation graphics (competition format) 07.2009 “La Castel”, Manau, RO-organized by TU Cluj, Faculty of Architecture conversion of an old hunting resort into agro-touristic accommodotation (competition format) 10.2008 “the secondary cities of Romania”, Cluj, RO-organized by prof. Daniel Kiss of ETH Zurich
prizes 07.2009 “La Castel” 1st- interior design 11.2009 “Inspired” Design Contest 6th-eco-friendly single family residence 02.2010 RE-presentations 1st-presentation panels computer skills 2D Autocad, Adobe PS, InD, ill 3D Archicad, Sketchup, Artlantis Rendering (Rhino and Revit beginner) tabels Word, Excel languages romanian mother tongue english excellent dutch basic french medium spanish medium
Academia
public space& housing Brussels-the urban transformation of the Pachecolaan. quality hausing in the city for families
The case of the Pacheco site is one with deep roots in the modernist dream and with a feeling of failed glory speculated by the 80s turning point in the gloabl economy. The Pacheco bears the print of each decade since its creation in the 60s. The aim of this project is to unveil and preserve the spirit of an era that is much criticised and even hated today, Modernism. But also to answer to the mentality and environmental requirements we face today, which impose a new life style and the rethinking of our economy. With this strategy in mind, this project narrows down its focus to creating quality housing for families mixed with studios and apartments for the elderly while giving life to the Groundscape, to the street Pacheco. This complex process leads to the creation of new spaces, urban spaces, new connections and levels of permeability. The main problem of the site is not necessarily its scale, but its monofunctionality that triggers a homogeneity to which richard Sennett in many of its lectures opposes the entropy. To create entropy and extend the city life this site needs a new configuration. The first step is to rethink the street from a traffic artery to a pedestrian oriented street bordered by attractive places to walk or ride a bycicle. To enliven it, the parking bordering it on one side is reduced to half, due to excess space, allowing to eliminate the 5m high opaque wall across the Congress Station and create an urban platform that has a three dimensional relation to the whole environment. The opportunity to create access to the station on both sides of the Pacheco arrises with the hope that this station will be much more active in the future as part of a more efficient public transportation. On top of the remaining parking which can be extended in the ground with 3-4 levels, a new area of housing is proposed, encorporating one if the existing buildings which today is empty, with the proposal to convert it into studio apartments. A new stilt volume closes the front to the Colonne du Congress square, defining new spaces but keeping an open access between the two. The common urban space belonging to the housing is public but with a different character than the one of the square around the station. Stairs and ramps ensure accessibility and different levels, as do the buildings with their interior circulation nodes. The groundfloors are mixed with the commercial spaces, services, cafes and terraces and the materiality id softened by the presence of greenary.
breaking the level difference [aprox 5m] between the street and the roof of the parking
creating a new square at the level of the street in direct connection. maintaining a part of the parking out of necessity.
restructuring space by adding new volumes. the functions respond to the needs of the city, such as walkable spaces, affordable housing for families, quality housing. The housing function. One of the buildings on the site is converted into studio apartments. Acces into the new buildings is done from the common outdoor space. The arrows indicate it. The housing is separated from the square by the level difference, although both spaces are perfectly accessible through ramps and stairs.
Complementary exit pavilion from the Congress Station, as part of the newly created square.
Commerce and services generating the edge of the square. Access to the Police Hdq building , to the parking and the Financial Tower.
mixed housing: apartments for young families and studios mixed apartments for families
conversion into studio apartments for students and young professionals
Possible scenario for the square. The activation of the edge with stores, cafes and restaurants with terraces. Also, the square is the turntable that offers access to all the buildings on the site. The drawing focuses on the soft layer, the one of the materiality and the connections.
commerce/ services
GV
Verdiepingen
commerce/ services
housing
for threatened communities in Karachi, Pakistan Machar Colony is a community situated in the S-W of Karachi, close to the city center and to the newly modern developed neighborhoods. The map on the left shows in black the coastal gentrification threatening now Machar Colony [in red] which is a historical fishing settlement. Today, due to high migration, inequality and political instability, the colony lives in extreme poverty without propper water and electricity supply and with a much bigger problem- the waste. The people make a living out of fishing and sorting out the garbage brought by seasonal floods of the Lyari river from uptown. The WALL This “wall� is a permeable structure with functions which allow the interaction between locals and what happens outside their colony. For this matter we identify 4 different types of neighbors, of which 3 are elements of the natural environment and one is part of the urban realm, generating 4 different types of edges. Their role is to prevent the uncontrolled sprawl of the houses in the mangroves-an action that leads to their destruction affecting the biosphere-and on the coast lines where tide or seasonal floods make it dangerous to inhabit. Another distinct role is to enhance and exchange with the city through commerce and possibly leisure. We want to generate growth in Machar inside these limits and we consider this growth to be about urban renewal in key points, without damaging the social network. We intervene first by adding and then by replacing/upgrading. The new row of buildings contain apartments at the upper level and workshops and small businesses on the ground floor. The houses are stilt allowing for a very flexible use of the ground floor, providing shadow for the working space and acting like a filter between the street and the Lyari estuary. Fences are not used. The stilt solution is embraced due to the proximty of the estuary and in a relation of image with the opposite edge of Machar Colony- the fishing edge (port). The ground floor allows a very active street life, specific to islamic cultures where the street is the main public space dedicated to trade. The footrpint consists of entrances to the apartments and places of congregation such as workshops, ateliers, food shops, cafes and shops, collective kitchens. The urban furniture plays a key role. A more retreated or private space is the one of the urban gardening, accessible to everyone but in the visual care of the house owners. Plants that grow in salty waters are the components of this landscape: coconut trees, salty water potatoes, flowers, etc. Incremental Housing. The stilt concrete structure permits the growth of the house in height and using the space according to the needs of the moment. Concrete is a very accessible material for the citizens of Karachi, especially in coastal areas where earth bricks can not be obtained because of the soil quality. The flexible spaces can be enclosed with walls of bamboo knitting and can be reconfigurated if needed. The plans of the apartments show how different types of families, nuclear or extended, can be accomodated in these units. The general manner of building in these poor communities is horizontal, rarely on a hight regime of G+1. The constructions are shabby and present a danger to the life of the people seeking shelter in them. The solution foreseen in this project is to provide a concrete structure of columns and beams with the basic needs of a family and the possibility to build upwards as the family expands, or as the social relations expand. This architectural solution includes the fact that the overall architectural image is a heterogenous one, where every household can be identified in the general image. Individuality is inevitable especially where scarcity is found.
THE WALL
Machar Colony
adding built tissue
the 4 edges of Machar
mixed use .public groundfloors
Back facade- garden view
Front Facade -street view
reconfigured landacape Oslo, Norway
“The Form of the Man-Made Landscape. While garden architecture has a distinct form, man-made landscape is inherent in living on and working the land. The landscape architectonic form is latently present in the man-made landscape in the interraction between the technical and the functional framework and the rural substratum” (Steenbergen, C. Composing Landscapes, Analysis, Typology and Experiments for Design, Birkhouser). Given the multiplicity constituted by the different characters of the neighborhoods arround our site, the chosen urban strategy with the main focus on landscape and topography, the drawn conclusion is that the site doesn’t need to become another neighborhood. The answer stands in giving it a form that can coagulate the neighborhoods and blur and break their boundaries. This Form has the qualities of both unifying the fragmented landscapes and the multiplicities and create a flow of urban spaces. The starting point of the analysis is the imminent relocation of the Munch Museum in the Fjord City, leaving the site with an empty building. Symbolically, this is the deprivation of the only cultural function serving the Tøyen Neighborhood. The Museum marks the border between Sofienberg and Tøyen.An analysis on an extended area shows that the surrounding neighbourhoods have a specificity, whether it consists of the urban layout , the infrastructure, the social composition, the architectonic image or the dimension of its attractiveness. The site chosen for intervention lies at the convergence of these neighbourhoods, borrowing a bit of each and gaining the perspective of enhancing this multiplicity. Oslo is a diverse and colourful city after all. The site is bordered by the Botanical Garden to the East, The Munch Museum to the South, The Toyen Park to the West and functionalist blocks of flats to the North. It is very well connected to the metro, playing the role of a hub. Form follows function, but not always. Form doesn’t follow functions, not all the times. Starting from debating on this famous deziderat, I approached the intervention by concluding that it does not need a specific function to heal its bluntness and lack of attractivity, but a form. A thorough analysis identified 3 important layers that define the existence of the area: the topography, the built tissue and the molding soft cover of landscape. Our site chosen for intervention, the so called “nothingness”, is defined only by one layer- the one of physical existence which is identified to be the topography. The cover of lawn does not qualify as landscape, nor the parking of the Munch Museum as built environment. By stressing one layer can the other two be generated? The project builds a narrative of topography to generate a form which can later on host a function in reltion to the other functions in the vecinity. The function is of secondary importance. A function can come and go, like in the case of the Munch Museum which will move its collection in a new building on the cultural axis of the Fjord City. The empty building of the old museum will be adopted into a conversion plan and will participate in the regenration and reconstruction of the site. The memory of the place as being a green space with the character of a park will be maintained. The function chosen to give life to the form is that of research laboratories serving te botanical garden.
Level of the garden. -1 Labs 1
1
2
2
3
3
HEA 360
3' 4
4
5
70+5 disabled
Meeting Room
22 x 0.16 = 3.50
25 x 0.16 = 4.00
Air Unit
Classroom
Labs for Researchers
Ventilation Courtyard
5
6
7
6
7
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
8
Administration/Secretariat Technical space. Ventilation Courtyard Air Units
Air Unit
Storage
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
0
5
15
30
50
Labs GF. Munch Museum -1 1
1
0.40
Storage
Personelle
2
2.08
0.10
2.27
3
Exhaust Supply
0.20
Generator Air Unit
2
3
3'
4
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
5
6
7
-2.00
Technical
-4.30
-3.00
-4.30
-4.30
EXPO HALL
0
2
Maintanance
5
Food Storage
Cafe Storage
Shafts Room
10
Cold Room
Drinks
Maintanance
Ventilation Units + Boiler Room
Storage, Archive
Storage, Archive
Ventilation Court
20
Munch Museum GF 0.00
390p
25tr x 17cm
0.00 RECEPTION
taksim gezi re-public workshop, Istanbul
Urban interface At the present moment Taksim square is not a square, it is an urban platform, containing different spaces with their own character and different uses. By identifying the existent and potential edges, we create a strategy of activating Taksim as „one“ square. Being aware that Taksim Square’s edges are in the people’s memories, we have the intention to materialize them and bring them back. Edges are not obstacles but splaces where it is possible to generate life. Besides the physical and social ones, in Taksim’s undefined perimeter the sensorial edges played an important role. They are the tool to analyse the perception of space, intuition within orientation, smell, textures. The physical edges are treated in two ways: sharpening or bluring them. They become interfaces! Implementation -restructuring the traffic -coherence of the pedestrian surfaces -introducing new functions -urban furniture for rest -initiating a paticipatory urban life in Taksim -modular furniture to appropriate the square -the tram line is extended following the historical route. -uncovering the historical layer, the relationship with water -no physical borders In Taksim Square we try to highlight the empty urban platform by underlining the quality of the polyvalent space. We create a stage where different kind of activities can be accommodated – forums, open air cinema, concert, press conference, sports. While designing we also question ourselves - How to redistribute the place in order to invite different users? We want it to be a space of self-expression. In this sense, the proposal contains changeable modules of urban furniture which people can transform and build up according to their perception. These modules consist of wooden cubes and movable platforms on rails with different textures suitable for resting. We were inspired by dr. Burak Pak’s statement: “ If people can build houses themselves, what can they do if you let them build in Taksim Square? “ Our project is not a finalized work, where everything is defined, it is a process, a base for further development. The multiple uses of Taksim Square in the scenario of a new political regime, one that allows the presence of steet furniture and public gatherings -using the bordering facades as screens -urban platform for shows and demonstrations -amphitheatre -mobile urban furniture. -mobile sitting platforms covered with turkish rugs motifs
Identifying the edge. Bluring the edge.
Work
social housing Brussels
As a member of the architectural team of Omgeving, Antwerp, I took part in the competition for social housing on Herkolierstraat, Jette, Brussels in 2015. The subject was an existing building of 40 housing units which needed to be upgraded and extended to host minimum 40 units with an appropriate functional scheme soothing families with one or two children. The task was difficult because of the following requirements: -the front facade to the street needed to remain untouched; -the back facade was disposable; -reaching 40 units with the minimum surfaces required by the norms seemed impossible in a building which already consisted of 40 units. The lack of livable space lead the current tennants to close the balconies and extend bathrooms and bedrooms, closing off from natural light other spaces. -the building needed to be in conformity with the current energetic efficiency: thermal insulation, ventilation system; -space for children’s carriages and for bikes needed to be provided on the ground floor. -the budget was limited to 3.5million euros We chose to maintain as much as possible of the building’s structure. After going back and forth with the functional scheme, the conclusion was that of demolishing the back facade, extending each floor towards the back courtyard and providing an independent structure for the extension. The groundfloor apartments benefit from a private garden. The choice for private gardens instead of a comunal garden was recomended by previous experiences where the maintenance of this space was not shared by every tennant. In order to reach the number of 40 units a fifth level was foreseen with 3 apartments. The project did not receive the maximum points. Bsides the positive feedback about the clearence of the living spaces and the attention to energy efficiency, there was negative review over the 5th level. Keeping 80% of the existing structure resulted into maintaining the same access to the apartments, thus mostly the same layout of the units. We chose to orientate the living room to the street, the bedrooms to the courtyard and in the middle where the natural light was weaker we placed the bathrooms, storages and the kitchen in relation to the dinning and living room.
swimming pool Lommel As a member of the architectural team of Omgeving, Antwerp, I took part in the competition for several indoor swimming pools funded by the municipality and the Sportoase organization. The functional scheme and everything related to the interior instalations was designed by the LD Architectuur office, while Omgeving became responsable for the outer shell of the building and the masterplanning and landscaping. The swimming pool of Lommel is situated in a green environment where a sports base is still active. Besides the building itself, the project aims to update the base with new tennis courts and to restructure the circulation on the site. At the interior, the building hosts a swimming pool for professional swimmers,, an area for loisir for families and children and on the upper floor 4 indoor tennis courts. A cafe links all the functions visually and physically on all levels.
swimming pool Roeselaere As a member of the architectural team of Omgeving, Antwerp, I took part in the competition for several indoor swimming pools funded by the municipality and the Sportoase organization. The functional scheme and everything related to the interior instalations was designed by the LD Architectuur office, while Omgeving became responsable for the outer shell of the building and the masterplanning and landscaping. The swimming pool of Roeselaere is situated on the bank of the Mandel River, at the edge of the city in aa former industrial area. The most important aspects of the site ar the vecinity with the river and with the Expo building dating from the 60s. The swimming pool is placed on a part of the existing parking, triggering the need to reorganize the entire parking area for both the Expo visitors and the swimmers. The program consists of a swimming pool for the pros, a loisir area and a fitness divided into spinning, fitness and dancing. A cafe on the ground floor ensures a relation with the Expo building and the river. The mobility on the site is also planned to fit the new insertion. Atention is given to the slow means of circulation and also to the existing traffic artery.
publiCITY Venice Biennale 2010- national competition for the participation
PubliCITY represents the coat of the city; it is a structure that encloses it, that is assumed by the city as its own. This ever-changing coat knows how to exploit and benefit from a citadel’s hot spots, has the extra-knowledge regarding people’s behaviours and customs, and speaks to its citizens, being in a permanent quest to seduce them. PubliCITY aims to capture people’s attention, having the ability to adapt and update according to their life styles. If the frontage of the buildings constitutes the shell of public space, within PubliCITY, its role is taken over by the advertisements. This year biennial’s theme opens up a discussion considering the space which is shared, dwelt, and consumed by a community. The fact that we all inhabit a place together generates a series of phenomena and artefacts, and architecture might represent the most eloquent indicative in this matter. Architecture is the first to communicate a city’s particularities, offering information about the citizens’ identity, age, culture, traditions, evolution, or life style. But what happens when architecture is assailed by the mechanisms underlying a society of consumption? In Romania, urban publicity gained substantial weight once capitalism penetrated the market. Publicity is overspread, recommending WHAT, HOW, HOW MUCH, WHERE, and WHEN to consume. PubliCITY is a pretext for analysing the city, for looking at this common space that we share through another lense, different from the classic ones. It is an attempt to understand, through a side phenomenon, that urban dimension generated by the dynamics of advertising pervading public space: how commercials influence us, why they fascinate us, how they blend with and how they interfere with the city flows, what their internal mechanisms are and what they manage to either obliterate or emphasize. What drives our endeavour is not aesthetics, but analysis and dialogue.
Thank you! anca paninopol adress: steenbokstraat 37 bus4, antwerpen 2018 e-mail: pani.anca@gmail.com m.phone: +32 470 966 836