HM EX AEQUO AWARD

PLAYGROUND, ROMANIAN PAVILION AT BIENNALE DI VENEZIA 2016

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location: Venice, Italy

architecture office: CRISAN ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING SRL

project, concept design: arch.Alexandru Crisan, arch.Ana Maria Crisan / collaborator: arch.Ioana Turcanu

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EN:

PLAYGROUND | THE CONCEPT OF THE PROJECT

Status as a matter of fact. A Report from the battle field… shouldn’t be hard since the Romanian architecture lives permanently in a combatant and combative state… While other countries have gone through periods of war; on the architectural scene Romania faces a post-war, developing war and a pre-war period. After World War II, many European developed countries have found their built space marked by war and took attitude, reconstructing and restoring the balance, long time ago, decades ago. Other countries such as Serbia, Albania, still carry the traces of the war they fought in and their built is in a State of war. Romania is the place where World War II left its traces negligible (in comparison with European countries), which ironically looks like a war field, marked by earthquakes (1977), or by the interventions of the Communist regime.   Evaluating the damages we find significant traces similar to those left by the world wars. From the abandoned rural areas or those with a critical density, to the urban areas expanded chaotic, with an incoherent tissue, up to the abandoned industrial sites, the built of his country is the reflection of a State of war: a domestic war with financial funds, demographic movements, and political regimes.

Ground 0. All wars have a ground 0 and in the case of Romania is Bucharest City – model and target at the same time, the model of all developments following Bjarke Ingels’ Yes is more and the target of all the wishes. Bucharest is a concrete battleground bearing the signs and the traces of war fought by architecture and against architecture. This ground 0 is a perfect exponent of a state that characterizes the entire country: the resistance… Bucharest is a battlefield where battles were fought, some were lost, some were started and abandoned; virtual strategies were designed and interventions were made at other times forgetting that battles were not fought. Bucharest is representative of the whole country, but it is especially a warning signal for what characterizes architecture in Romania. This ground 0 is not a static image; it is not a tissue that was strategically developed. The city… is a superposition of layers, signs, signs, traces, all betraying the ruthless fights that were held. Such fights started predominant on a large scale, expressing monumental visions of change, indirectly resulting in very small changes in another unit of time than expected. This ground 0 is the stage where the battle between grandiose visions and small scale interventions is fought … it is in fact a largely underground struggle. Romanian Pavilion shows the response to the Biennale theme, a state of affairs: the battlefield of Bucharest as an exponent of architecture turmoil. Bucharest architecture experiences gaps left in the tissue similar to those after the bombing, large-scale interventions, cut arteries from the tissue, delayed visions versus the time of the actual intervention.

Vision and response: Consequently, the architects are responding to the challenge of these tensions. And the answer in the recent decades has been accordingly. In every field, battles are fought in the rear and they follow certain strategies. The less internationally known aspects of the Romanian architecture are precisely these battles fought in the open or not, fights following the theoretical aspects in magazines, architecture books, television, and practical, on a much smaller scale, in design work. These strategies are hidden from international view… manifest projects produced as involuntary reactions to the problems facing architects – projects that die soon abandoned during political changes. But in these strategies, projects without limited partners, lie visions of bringing back to life the existing tissue, visions of recovering the integrity of some given areas, the visions which establish a scale, claiming spaces and stating trails.

History repeats itself. Paradoxically, Hausman like foreign interventions are not unknown… Victoria Socialismului (Victory of Socialism) Boulevard design in 1977 (now Unirii Boulevard) corresponds in terms of repercussion to Buzesti thoroughfare setting out. On the battlefield pawns are moved/ moving over churches during the communist regime; heroes are abandoned/ forgotten Monuments – Asan’s Mill; heroes are lost/ disabled monuments such as Vacaresti Church, Matache Macelarul (Butcher’s) Hall; trenches and limits are drawn, i.e. setting out Buzesti thoroughfare; territories are won/ see TUB project; places are marked/ km 0 /.

Past-present-future. Monumental strategies, small victories, abandoned fields … all leave footprints and scarring the built tissue life, they scar the architectural thinking. The last decade is a decade that is distinguished by the increased activity of NGOs and of the social responsibility. But beyond this responsibility, lost battles are reactivated – the recovery and the reactivation of various plants – Bucharest Creative Plants Project/ Zepellin, Cartea Romaneasca Printing House recovery, the signal alarm for Forgotten Monuments etc. Ground 0 is characterized by alternating continuity and discontinuities, reflecting the situation of the Romanian architecture. A «small» architecture that can fill large gaps…

From D day to V day. Architecture leads wars in many ways… wars with time, scale wars, wars with the political regime, financial wars, technological wars…, intellectual wars, wars of survival. To admit that you are in a state of war is not impeachable, but to recognize that you have not fought, that you have not committed, you did not support your point of view and surrendered, that is a loss in itself. We have not lost yet. As years pass by, we get a higher strength and fight in underground in all fields through strategic projects… small or large. As demonstrated in the past, ROMANIA stays neutral too much… a neutrality that neutralizes any power of intervention and reduces the forces of action… If others move from D-Day to day V, Romania remains in a MANI-FESTO state, in a critical condition of criticizing.

PLAYGROUND | Description of the project

The layout of the elements presented in the Pavilion co-relate the descriptions, the scale models and the development schemes of the capital town located on the side walls with the central game of the volumes, with multiple versions of geometrical layout, intended to reinforce the visitor the Demiurge feeling of the conceiving architect, both at the macro scale, of the town and at the micro scale, of the architectural objects placed on the context. Playground, the name proposed for Romanian Pavilion, synthetic transposes the battle within the urban frame, battles waged at the level of major interventions and specific actions; it succeeds in attracting the visitor by involving him directly in multiple layout variations or volumetric compliance of the urban tissue. The proposed game consists of a series of mathematical rules aiming the arrangement of the elements following an algorithm by default. Like the game of chess, with finite elements, it presents multiple variants of volumetric compliance and spatial arrangement within the Pavilion, following the limits of the orthogonal grid drawn on the floor and of the tokens ranked on different levels of difficulty of the possible associations (i.e. position D1 can be followed by G5, F8 or G7; an alternative may be joining the B3 or V9 etc.) The descriptions, diagrams and scale models presented in the pavilion walls continuity follow a predetermined route and show aspects of the evolution of the architectural phenomenon in terms of interventions that have radically changed the city. The presented interventions count on urban scale and on the major interventions that have radically changed the perception of compliance and the city over time. Distinct aspects of the massive demolitions during the communist era, contemporary interventions to restructure the city (Buzesti diagonal) and even recent times avant-garde projects, aimed at improving the discontinuities and the repeated fragmentation of the city, are highlighted. These interventions mainly refer to the urban space and the local architectural accents of the avant-garde buildings. The Romanian Pavilion space is 99% white.

The arrangement of Playground Pavilion involves several distinct categories of works:

• general arrangement of the interior space involves: wall painting and painting works, temporary closing of the share beams optional for areas where projections will be achieved etc. Closing will be made of lightweight materials, namely canvas tense anchored at the top level in the side walls or hanging from existing beams, high fire resistant. The arrangement will not affect the inner circulation in the Pavilion;
• arrangement of the side walls by placing and fixing the presentation scale models, and the panels with printed descriptions and images that explain the presentation proposed solution according to the concept description. Fixing models will be achieved by undertaking punctual attaches/ anchoring on vertical surfaces, while panels with explanatory texts will be fixed through adhesive surface or hidden points. The walls of the pavilion will be coated in matt-reflective white snow paint to create a refractive surface brushed effect;
• works for the pavilion floor arrangement by marking guideline routes based on which central parts (models) will be moved. These consist of plotting the orthogonal grid and the signs under which the major models will be placed up to visitors. Local routes proposed at   floor level will be painted with special dyes that react to light incidence: in the dark they become phosphorescent not to disturb the central game of the scale models layout during the projections;
• arrangement of the central space of the pavilion by achieving scale layouts / boxes to be moved by the visitors in a predetermined order as shown and orientation tokens placed at floor level. The models are reinforced internally and are provided at the bottom with a triangular guidance system, with wheels, that allow movement in any direction. The models have beveled edges to pre-encounter any accidents. Volumes whose height does not exceed 50 cm can be used as rest areas for visitors. Volumes with a height of approx. 1.20 m can be used by visitors to record impressions of the pavilion or be used to support the promotional materials of the Pavilion. Buildings models and are additional boxes are 99% white;

RO:

Concursului naţional pentru selectarea proiectului care va reprezenta România la cea de-a 15-a ediţie a Expoziţiei Internaţionale de Arhitectură – la Biennale di Venezia

PLAYGROUND | Conceptul proiectului

Stare de fapt. Report from the front… nu ar trebui sa fie greu din moment ce arhitectura romaneasca traieste permanent intr-o stare combativa si combatanta… In timp ce alte tari au trecut prin perioade de razboi, Romania pe scena arhitecturii se confrunta cu o stare post-razboi, in razboi si pre-razboi. Multe dintre tarile dezvoltate ale Europei si-au gasit dupa al doilea razboi mondial construitul marcat de urmele razboiului si au luat atitutine, reconstituind si refacand, readucand echilibrul… demult, in urma cu decenii. Alte tari precum Serbia, Allbania, poarta inca urmele razboielor purtate si construitul lor este o stare de razboi. Romania este locul in care cel de-al doilea razboi mondial a lasat urme neglijabile, (prin comparatie cu tarile europei), care paradoxal arata ca un camp de razboi, marcat de cutremure (1977), sau de interventiile regimului comunist. Evaluand pagubele gasim urme semnificative – similare celor lasate de razboaiele mondiale. De la zonele rurale abandonate sau cu densitate critica, la zonele urbane extinse haotic si cu tesuturi incoerente, pana la siturile industriale abandonate, construitul acestei tari este reflexia unei stari de razboi: un razboi intern cu fondurile, miscarile demografice, regimurile politice.

Ground 0. Toate razboaiele au un ground 0 si in cazul Romaniei este Bucurestiul – model si tinta in acelasi timp, model al tuturor dezvoltarilor in sesul acelui Yes is More al lui Bjarke Ingels si tinta a tuturor dorintelor. Bucurestiul este un camp de lupta concret care poarta semnele si urmele razboaielor puratate de arhitectura si cu arhitectura. Acest ground 0 este exponentul perfect al unei stari care caracterizeaza intreaga tara: rezistenta… Bucurestiul este un camp de lupta pe care s-au purtat batalii, s-au pierdut batalii, s-au inceput batalii si au fost abandonate, s-au proiectat virtual strategii si s-a intervenit in alti timpi uitand ca luptele nu au mai fost purtate. Bucurestiul este un exponent pentru intreaga tara, dar mai ales un semnal de alarma pentru ceea ce caracterizeaza arhitectura din Romania. Acest ground 0 nu este o imagine statica, nu este un tesut care a fost dezvoltat strategic. Orasul… este o suprapunere de layere, semne, urme, care toate tradeaza indarjirea cu care s-au purtat luptele. Lupte incepute predominant la o scara mare, viziuni monumentale de schimbare, avand ca rezultat indirect schimbari foarte mici in alta unitate de timp decat cea preconizata. Acest ground 0 este scena pe care se poarta lupta intre viziunile grandioase si interventiile la scara mica… in fond o lupta de underground. Pavilionul Romaniei prezinta, ca raspuns la tema bienalei, o stare de fapt: campul de lupta al Bucurestiului ca exponent al framantarilor arhitecturii. Arhitectura bucuresteana se confrunta cu goluri lasate in tesut ca dupa bombardament, interventii la scara mare, artere decupate din tesut, viziuni decalate de un timp al interventiei reale.

Viziune si raspuns / Vision and response: In consecinta arhitectii sunt in fata provocarii de a raspunde acestor tensiuni. Si raspunsul in ultimele decenii a fost pe masura. Pe orice camp se duc lupte si in spate acestea au strategii. Fata mai putin cunoscuta international a arhitecturii romanesti consta tocmai in aceste lupte duse la vedere sau nu, lupte purtate pe partea teoretica in reviste, carti de arhitectura, la televiziuni, si practic in activitatea de proiectare la o scara mult mai mica. Aceste strategii sunt acunse vederii internationale… proiecte manifest produse ca reactii involuntare la problemele cu care arhitectii se confrunta – proiecte care mor in scurt timp abandonate pe parcursul schimbarilor politice. Dar in aceste strategii, proiecte fara comanditar, stau viziunile pentru readucerea la viata a tesutului existent, viziunile de recuperare a integritatii unor zone, viziunile care instaureaza o scara, care revendica spatii, care afirma trasee.

Istoria se repeta. Paradoxal interventiile hausmaniene nu ne sunt straine… trasarea in 1977 a bulevardului Victoria Socialismului (actualul Bulevard Unirii ) corespunde in termenii repercursiunilor trasarii arterei Buzesti. Pe campul de bataie se muta pioni /mutarea Bisericilor din timpul regismului comunist; se abandoneaza eroi/ Monumente uitate, Moara lui Asan; se pierd eroi/ dezafecteaza monumente: Biserica Vacaresti, Hala Matache Măcelarul; se deseneaza trasee si limite, trasarea arterei Buzesti spre ex.; se castiga teritorii/ vezi proiect TUB; se marcheaza locuri/ km 0/.

Trecut-prezent-viitor. Strategii monumentale, victorii mici, campuri abandonate… toate lasa urme – cicatrici in viata tesutului construit, cicatrici in gandirea de arhitectura. Ultimul deceniu este un deceniu care se remarca prin activitatea crescuta a ONG urilor si a responsabilitatii sociale. Dar dincolo de acesta responsabilitate, lupte pierdute sunt reactivate – recuperarea si reactivarea fabricilor – proiectul Fabrici Creative București/ Zepellin, reconversia tipografiei Cartea Romaneasca, semnalul de alarma pentru Monumente uitate etc. Ground 0 se caracterizeaza prin alternanta continuitatilor si discontinuitatilor, reflectand starea de fapt a arhitecturii romanesti. O arhitectura « mica » care poate umple goluri mari…

De la ziua D la ziua V. Razboaiele pe care arhitectura le duce sunt de multe feluri… razboaie cu timpul, razboaie cu scara, razboaie cu regimul politic, razboaie financiare, razboaie tehnologice… razboaie intelectuale… razboaie de supravietuire. A recunoaste ca duci razboaie nu este o stare de acuzat dar a recunoaste ca nu ai luptat, ca nu te-ai angajat, ca nu ti-ai sustinut punctul de vedere, ca ai capitulat este o pierdere in sine. Inca nu am pierdut. Castigam cu anii ce trec o rezistenta sporita si luptam in underground pe toate planurile, prin proiecte de strategie…mica sau mare. Asa cum s-a demonstrat si in trecut ROMANIA ramane neutra prea mult… o neutralitate care neuralizeaza orice putere de interventie si reduce fortele de actiune… daca altii trec de la ziua D la ziua V, Romania ramane la stadiul de MANI-FEST, intr-o stare critica, de critica.

PLAYGROUND | Descrierea proiectului

Dispunerea elementelor prezentate in cadrul Pavilionului co-relationeaza descrierile, machetele si schemele de dezvoltare ale orasului capitala amplasate pe peretii laterali cu jocul central al volumelor cu multiple variante de dispunere geometrica menit sa accentueze vizitatorilor sentimentul demiurgic al arhitectului conceptor, atat la scara macro, cazul orasului, cat si la scara micro, la nivelul obiectului arhitectural amplasat contextual. Playground, numele propus pentru Pavilionul Romaniei, transpune sintetic lupta purtata in cadrul urban, la nivelul interventiilor majore cat si al interventiilor punctuale, care reuseste sa-l antreneze pe vizitator si sa-l implice direct in variantele multiple de dispunere sau conformare volumetrica ale tesutului urban. Jocul propus este alcatuit dintr-o serie de reguli matematice ce vizeaza dispunerea elementelor dupa un algoritm predefinit. Asemanator jocului de sah, cu elemente finite, acesta prezinta variante multiple de conformare volumetrica si dispunere spatiala in cadrul pavilionului urmand limitele retelei ortogonale trasate pe pardoseala si a indicativelor clasate pe diferite nivele de dificultate al alaturarilor posibile. (ex. pozitia D1 poate fi urmata de G5, F8 sau G7 ; o varianta alternativa poate constitui alaturarea cu B3 sau V9 etc) Descrierile, schemele si machetele prezentate in continuitate pe peretii pavilionului urmeaza un traseu prestabilit si prezinta aspecte ale evolutiei fenomenului arhitectural din punct de vedere al interventiilor ce au schimbat radical orasul. Interventiile prezentate mizeaza pe scara urbana si interventiile majore care au schimbat radical conformarea si perceptia orasului de a lungul timpului. Vor fi evidentiate aspecte distincte ale demolarilor masive ale perioadei comuniste, ale interventiilor contemporane de restructurare a orasului (diagonala Buzesti) dar si proiectele de natura avangardista ale perioadei recente, menite sa amelioreze discontinuitatile si fragmentarile repetate ale orasului. Printre acestea mentionam preponderent interventiile la nivelul spatiului urban si accentele arhitecturale locale ale cladirilor de avangarda. Spatiul Pavilionului Romaniei este 99% alb.

Amenajarea pavilionul Playground implica mai multe categorii de lucrari distincte:

• amenajarea generala a spatiului interior care implica lucrari de zugravire, vopsitorii, inchiderea optionala provizorie la cota grinzilor pentru zonele in care vor fi realizate proiectiile etc. Inchiderea va fi realizata din materiale usoare, respectiv panza tensionata ancorata la cota superioara in peretii laterali sau agatata de grinzile existente, cu grad ridicat de rezistenta la foc. Interventia nu va afecta circulatia interioara in cadrul Pavilionului;
• amenajarea peretilor laterali prin amplasarea si fixarea machetelor de prezentare cat si a panourilor imprimate cu descrierile si imaginile ce expliciteaza solutia propusa cf. descriere concept. Fixarea machetelor se va realiza prin prinderi punctuale la nivelul suprafetelor verticale iar panourile cu texte explicative se vor fixa prin suprafata adeziva sau fixare in puncte mascata. Peretii pavilionului vor fi zugraviti in culoare alb zapada mat-reflectorizant pentru a crea un efect matuit de refractie a suprafetei.;
• lucrari de amenajare pentru pardoseala pavilionului cu marcarea traseelor directoare in baza carora vor fi deplasate piesele (machetele) centrale. Acestea constau in trasarea grid-ului ortogonal si al indicativilor in baza carora se vor dispune piesele principale la latitudinea vizitatorilor. Traseele locale propuse la nivelul cotei pardoselii se vor realiza cu vopseluri speciale ce reactioneaza la incidenta luminii: la intuneric devin fosforescente pentru a nu perturba jocul central al dispunerii machetelor in timpul proiectiilor;
• amenajarea spatiului central al pavilionului prin realizarea la scara a machetelor/cutiilor ce urmeaza a fi deplasate de vizitatori intr-o ordine prestabilita conform desenului si indicativelor de orientare amplasate la nivelul pardoselii. Machetele sunt rigidizate la interior avand prevazut la partea inferioara, un sistem de ghidaj dispus triunghiular, cu roti ce permit deplasarea modulelor in orice directie. Machetele au muchii tesite pentru a pre-intampina eventualele accidente. Volumele a caror inaltime nu depaseste 50 cm pot fi utilizate ca zone de odihna pentru vizitatori. Volumele cu inaltimea de aprox.1,20m pot fi utilizate de vizitatori pentru a nota impresii din cadrul pavilionului sau pot fi utilizate ca suport pentru materialele promotionale ale Pavilionului. Machetele cladirilor si cutiile aditionale sunt albe in proportie de 99%;

texts: Ana Maria Crisan & Alexandru Crisan