STEFAN NECHITA PORTFOLIO
UNKNOWN-HOUSING AS AN OPEN PROBLEM
2012
JOHANNES HONTERUS COURT IN BRASOV
2011
ARCHITECTURE LIBRARY IN ROME
2010
ROMANIAN ART MUSEUM IN BALCHIK
2008
ORTHODOX CHURCH IN IASI ZLB LIBRARY
2009-present 2013
SCHOOL OF BUNESTI
2009 - present
INDESEM WORKSHOP
2011
UNKNOWN-HOUSING AS AN OPEN PROBLEM UTOPIA
Function: museum/memorial Type: school assignment/international student competition Result: 1st prize ex-aequo Year: 2012 Semester: 8th Following the course of history, at certain moments of crossroads (natural disasters, important political change, periods after war, after revolutions, etc) the need for architecture surpasses every other need; all architecture programs suddenly dissapear, housing remains the only interest. But at the same time that complete studies are being developed, in a world where individuality is at its peak, what can a simple architect do? The problems of Housing are very complex. They cannot be solved through a simple architecture project. In order to actually make a difference dwelling should be studied in all its aspects: social, economical, anthropological, religious, etc. The project sends a message to those in the future, it sets a warning, starting as a Housing Museum (archive that is constantly being updated) and becoming a memorial of origins. It does not give solutions or resolve problems of housing; it is a mere shout towards patience and reason.
Who knows? This place may already exist somewhere, waiting patiently for us to discover
THE PIT
The project tells the story of M., an architect who is faced with his life slowly ending and his acknowledgement of the fact that he has nothing to leave behind. Beneath his 10 x 30 meter piece of land that was saved from the old property, with a small house in the middle he would make a housing museum. He would house here all the knowledge that architecture has attained during the centuries so that when the time comes, it will open for everyone, making a statement of patience in rebuilding, as opposed to the natural haste that would entervene. This would be his dying wish.
The project tells the story of M., an architect who is faced with his life slowly ending and his acknowledgement of the fact that he has nothing to leave behind. Beneath his 10 x 30 meter piece of land that was saved from the old property, with a small house in the middle he would make a housing museum. He would house here all the knowledge that architecture has attained during the centuries so that when the time comes, it will open for everyone, making a statement of patience in rebuilding, as opposed to the natural haste that would entervene. This would be his dying wish.
JOHANNES HONTERUS COURT BRASOV
Function: Public space rehabilitation Type: school assignment/competition Year: 2011 Semester: 7th Team: Nechita Stefan | Tudor Munteanu | Sebastian Cucu Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Arch. Stefan Scafa-Udriste In the same way in which the Tampa mountain flows over the old city of Brasov, the gothic Black Church throws its mantle over the Johannes Honterus court. In the inside of the court, the views are cut by this massive collossus which keeps you close to it, always at its base looking up from always the same distance, sensing the tension between it and the surrounding buildings. The court flourishes as a circumscribed space, at the border between the public and the private, between the religious and the profane. The competition proposes the revival of this space by means of subtle intervention, as it belongs both to the church, the german school situated here and most importantly, to the city. The shape of the court shows a series of pockets with a role not only in connecting the adjacent spaces, but also in the softening of the access inside the site. Others are hidden behind walls and carry their duty with respect to the core of the court. Therefore, a morphological development of the surrounding space is proposed, offering it the identity required, but not by the exclusion of these pockets, but by their potential empowerment within the entire composition.
placement within the cultural, touristic and religious axis
the Black Church, next to the Rathaus Square, central points of interest within the old fortified citadel of Brasov
the proposed site is a shared space between the Church and the German School and has a mixed nature: religious, secular and public
the redefinement of the urban gothic square through the determination of an area of proximity
relationship between void and filled space in the fabric surrounding the site
the Black Church: independent volume within the urban fabric; must not become adjunct to the Rathaus Square
the excluded pockets are defined by subtle architectural elements, serving as forerunners to the court entrance
the pavement of the main space, perpendicular to the direction of the church reveals the tension between the church and the surrounding fabric
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1 the statue of Johannes Honterus points towards the main school building, secluded inside a fenced perimeter in the unpaved court
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before: the linking pocket between the Rathaus Square and the Johannes Honterus Court after: the pocket becomes a convergence and distribution space for pausing from daily endeavours, for sitting down and having a sip of water from the well
before: the southern side of the court serves as a main yard for the German School after: preserving its function, the children are now playing on a clean, paved space; stone benches are scattered throughout
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1. spotlight concealed in the concave cap of the light pole; 2. Schreder light pole, Aura model, anodized aluminium, dark grey, h= 6m; 3. Anodized aluminium trash can, dark grey, h= 0.8m, D= 0.3m; 4. Underground plastic tube - continuation of roof drainage system - D= 8cm; 5. Bazalt block 10x20x10 cm; colours white & grey; 6. Sandy earth filling h= 4cm (unfitting for vegetal growth); 7. Sand layer h= 3.5 - 9 cm; 8. Geotextile layer; 9. Water insulation; 11. Natural soil layer; 12. Drainage duct, iron, 42x38x22 cm; 13. Underground sewage system link; 14. Sitting spots, bazalt, variable sizes, correlated with pavement pattern, h= 04m; 15. Small rigola elements, bazalt, 20x20x3 cm; 16. Existing cubical stone in front of the church, 16x16x16 cm; 17. Existing stone 34x16x15 cm; 18. Drainage duct, iron, 26x16x20 cm; 19. Buried lighting element, Phillips, model Pompei 505.
before: the space in front of the main school building, unwelcoming and distasteful after: the pocket becomes an open classroom, with two trees framing a small podium
before: the old bookshop, completely secluded from the main court after: the niches in the wall become permeable, the small pocket, a caffeteria
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the nocturnal lighting scheme employs both a series of lighting poles and pin lights at the base of the church. the lighting poles are placed around the perimeter of the square and are equipped with reflectors illuminating the church. the pin lights are placed so as to stress the verticality of the gothic structure.
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ARCHITECTURE LIBRARY ROME
Function: Library Type: school assignment Year: 2010 Semester: 5th Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Arch. Orazio Carpenzano Looking at the big picture, the site is located in the so-called "modern center" of Rome. Here, a pedestrian route will link the 5 main attractions in the area: "Il ponte de la musica", "MAXXI", "Il palazzetto dello sport", "L'Auditorium" and the new Architecture Library of Rome. The project proposes the mediation of the contemporary debate regarding architecture, detaching from both parties. An architecture library set in a town that seems to have refused modernity and opposite one of Rome's few contemporary buildings (Zaha Hadid's MAXXI) is the perfect place where, within the proffesion, in the public space deseigned above, the problems of contemporary architecture can be disscused and eventually solved. Thought of like a Master-Plan, the solution tries to detach itself from what an industrial building that was recovered from the site means or the construction of a new building at the opposite side of the site. Let's give Peter Zumthor the 3 barracks already on the site to restore them, to Norman Foster the new building to build a tower with the new parametric design methods and let us sit between these two, learning from both and constructively criticising them at the same time.
SHOULD CONTEMPORARY DEBATE REGARDING ARCHITECTURE BE A VIOLENT WAR BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW?
OR AN ELEVATED GENTLEMEN'S GAME OF CHESS?
a former industrial area is the site for the architecture library in Rome
the 3 main barracks were recovered and reconverted
at the opposite site of the side a new volume is constructed
the main body will be set underground; a space for debate and study
MUSEUM OF ROMANIAN ART BALCHIK
Function: museum Type: school assignment Year: 2008 Semester: 3rd Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Arch. Mircea Ochinciuc Balchik is a seaside-city in Bulgaria that used to be, up to 1940, part of Romania. Is was queen Marie's vacation site and many interwar romanian architects built marvelous architecture here. The breef of the project seeks to value these works of art (along with paintings and sculptures) in a museum dedicated to Romanian Art. Set between a steep cliff and the sea, the idea of the pavilion is inspired by the animal architecture of the mineral wall. It is placed at the feet of this wall, protected in one direction and infinitely opened in the other creating spaces for exhibition, meditation and lookout points. Once curiosity aroused the visitor looks for its week points, the ones of acces into the museum. The tension between the natural and the artificial wall allows you to study the natural formations that have carved their marks during the centuries. Between the two thick concrete slabs you go upwards like in an antfarm. At certain moments, different views towards the seaside and the whole city are revealed either through big openings and balconies or through small square wholes in the wall. Light flows downwards to the base of the pavilion where the main exhibition gallery is positioned.
ORTHODOX CHURCH IASI
Function: church Status: building phase Year: 2009-present Collaboration: Prof. Dr. Arch. Ana Maria Goilav The wooden church is an experiment from start to finish. It occupies the center of the site, rotated at a 45 degree angle from the parallel margins. This way of positioning the volume is according with the christianic doctrine of facing the altar to the east and at the same time creates a series of triangle shaped outside spaces where people can stay and listen to the service. The volume in itself is designed to represent the altar while the public space surrounding it the body of the church. The volume is comprised of 3 cubes intersected and rotated at a 45 degree angle from eachother. The project proposes the implication of the community in building their church. The materials and the technique used are very simple, the whole building being constructed in wood beams and covered with copper sheets. This way local craftsmen can be employed in its construction, craftsmen that are intended to teach their knowledge of working in wood to others, so that the craft carries on in time. The bell tower sits adjacent to the street announcing the community of important religious moments. The difference in terain level was resolved by creating a series of radial steps that lead you to the garden, where cherry trees are planted around the church.
ZLB LIBRARY BERLIN
Function: Library Type: international competition Year: 2013 Collaboration: SYAA | PZP The library as classical function. Knowledge as spiritual element, that gives order to the world. The library, like the Church in the traditional tissue, becomes a dominant element around which the neighborhood concentrates. A neighborhood for the people. The same people from Templehoffer Feld that love public space, practice gardening in the warm seasons and ski in the park during the winter. An empty space, immense, conquered by the people that wish to socialize in their free time. The main objective of the urban approach of the area was to create a system of public spaces around the library that would allow circulation to happen freely and offer the premises for a public forum. These squares are activated through the surrounding mix of public and commercial facilities. A cathedral of knowledge. A powerful, independent object, the library touches the ground as little as possible and then rises in steps towards the ski. This gesture creates a protected space all around the body of the library; it creates a dialogue between the ones inside and the surroundings. In addition, it can become a space of advertising for the library, visible from the nearby squares, neighborhood and from the far horizon of the park.
SCHOOL OF BUNESTI WORKSHOP
Status: construction phase Year: 2009-present Involvement: coordinator/tutor Working with natural materials like wood, clay and stone, the School of Bunesti explores the potential of traditional techniques by learning from the experience of vernacular architecture and applying it to our present needs, without the purpose of imitation nor with the wish to innovate at any cost. We do not believe in “adopting� the rural houses because these houses have a beauty which is already part of the finite refined constructions and we do not wish to disturb it: the purpose of the Bunesti workshops has clearly been, over the years, to rediscover the meanings that the natural use of certain local materials confer to the act of building and to the building themselves. An important link to the vernacular building tradition was living and working together with craftsmen, a fact that made us understand that ignoring tradition leads to the impossibility of innovating on fundamental constructive topics. The School's ambition of exploring each year a different natural material along with its own constructing laws lead to the establishing of the three different structural forms, based on the three primary materials: wood, clay and stone. All the materials were provided by the place itself: wood, clay and stone.
BUNESTI WORKSHOP EXHIBITION BUCHAREST
Spring photos
Event: Bucharest Architecture Annual Status: Built Year: 2012 Involvement: Curator
Winter photos 3
Autumn photos
The School of Bunesti was invited to make an exhibition as part of the Bucharest Architecture Annual that is organised by the Order of the Architects. The space for the exhibition was a late 19th century restorated house. The walls of the house had been dismantled and replaced with three metalic poles, thus creating a single open space gallery. The exhibition consisted of a photographic expo, divided in 4 parts according to the 4 seasons, and a carpenter tool expo. The idea was to create a visiting circuit through as little intervention as possible. In front of the entrance, a wooden wall was created by means of 10x10 cm wooden beams one on top of the other at a distance of 5 cm. This wall had a double role: to guide the visitor through the pavilion so that he could see the photographes in a cronological autumn to summer order and to make a visible suggestion to one of the houses built in the workshop, the wooden cube house, so that the visitor would feel as if he were transported to the Bunesti workshop site. Passing through the carpenter work tables and after seeing the photographs the visitors would sit and listen to the programmed lectures and discussions.
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Summer photos
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INDESEM WORKSHOP - LOSING GROUND DELFT
Theme: Connecting the real with the virtual Type: Preliminary competition Year: 2010 Looking into the past we can see that humanity has encountered changes of such proportions before. The new machineries of the industrial revolution had a physical impact on the way people built, but media is a change from within, non-physical and intangible. How can it sculpt the way architects think? Architecture, as we know it, is the act of creating secluded 3d space, of cutting space out of the world and personalising it. But with the emergence of new ways of seeing space, does architecture, in its physical form, need to be 3d anymore? Through a minimum amount of gestures, the architect creates interiors. Can some of these gestures be replaced by technology? A system of screens that use 3d technology are to be implanted in various public spaces in important cities around the world. Live transmition allows interaction at distance in 3 dimensions. Groups of people meet in this morphing virtual space in doing various activities that range from TED conferences, debates and international workshops to parties, concerts and theater plays. By installing at least 2 screens like this in each city, a chain reaction is unleashed that connects the whole planet in one big community. The phisical space between you and the 2d screen becomes the new architecture, where walls or ceilings are not necessary to define space anymore.
In his book “The poetics of space”, Gaston Bachelard studies a proze poem of Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues entitled “The egg in the landscape”. The poet discovers a slight deformation in the glass of a window, that spreads deformation throughout the universe. He askes himself: “Does the nature of the world change, or is it real nature that triumphs over appearences?”
3:00 am_february 23_2010_Piazza del Popolo_Roma By the end of the first half of the 21 century it is expected for the world population to grow to up to 10 billion people. Rome is already an overcrowded city due to the continuous flow of turists. How will the city look during the rush hours? Can night-time be a solution? Will some people give up their actual cycles and inhabit the night? Do we need sunlight anymore if all technology functions with artificial light?
INDESEM WORKSHOP - LOSING GROUND DELFT
Theme: Connecting the real with the virtual Type: Workshop Year: 2011 Coordinator: Warren Neidich | Kai van Hasselt Studying the Museum Park in Rotterdam, the site proposed for the workshop intervention, we observed that there wasn't a clear perception of the park as a solified unit among the inhabitants of the city. Public space doesn’t emerge as a key element for the culture life of Rotterdam and people don’t feel the connection between the park and the museums. A new identity needed to be created. Could a link between the virtual world and the real abandoned one create this identity? We took Twitter as a working platform where people express thoughts and comments and interact with other people and places. Thus, the idea was to take these virtual messages/ links and transport them in the real tangible world, that of architecture. We constructed a tweet detector. A machine that circles around an axis and scans the surrounding area for tweets. When it finds one, it signals the direction of the place the tweet was created and shows it on a screen so that everyone in the park can see it. This would create a real connection between the real and the virtual and would prove helpful in the dynamics of public space.
STEFAN NECHITA
birth date: 12 | 08 | 1989 telephone: 0040769247077 e-mail: stefan.nechita89@gmail.com
STUDIES
2008 – present “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism Faculty of Architecture, 5th year 1st year – Studio Prof. Dr. Arch. Florian Stanciu 2nd year – Studio Prof. Dr. Arch. Mircea Ochinciuc 3rd year – Studio Prof. Dr. Arch. Orazio Carpenzano 4th and 5th year – Studio Prof. Dr. Arch. Stefan Scafa-Udriste 2010 – 2011 ERASMUS Scolarship – Faculty of Architecture "Valle Giulia" – Rome, Italy – 3rd year
LANGUAGES
Romanian – native English – proficient – Cambridge CPE French – advanced Italian – advanced
SKILLS
AutoCAD, 3DS Max (V-Ray, Mental-Ray), Revit Architecture, SketchUP, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign