Romanian Modernism, The Architecture Of Bucharest 1920-1940

The volume was published by one of the most prestigious academic publishing houses, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (USA).

Launched in 1999 in New York, London and ^Bucharest1, it was intended to initiate a recovery of the Romanian modernist movement and offered foreign readers the possibility of contact with this phenomenon.

At the time of its publication, it was the first book by a Romanian author published by MIT Press.

The publication was made possible thanks to a sponsorship from the Getty Foundation under the Getty Grant Program, and was one of about 40 works on Eastern European culture selected for publication under the conditions imposed by MIT^Press2 .

On receiving the manuscript, the program director, Roger Conover, fascinated and amazed at the same time by the fact that the architecture presented in the book still exists in Bucharest (unfortunately, the image of Romania in the press was perceived overseas as quite different from the concrete reality), did not hesitate to make a short visit to "convince himself" of the existence of this heritage.

Unknown and concealed for a long time, Romanian modern architecture between the two world wars was not analyzed by international researchers and critics, mainly because the phenomenon had not yet been sufficiently studied in Romania.

The modern movement in Romania was more of a 'blank spot' in the reference studies of foreign historians and researchers.

There was a lack of a broader critical analysis as a source of information, defining the character, value and position of the Romanian avant-garde and modernism, which had manifested itself early on abroad and which continued to express itself in different tonalities in Bucharest after the First World War.

The book is based on the research Bucharest Interwar Modern Architecture, conceived in 1994, within the framework of a scholarship granted by the Soros Foundation at the Central European University in Prague, and had the chance to be noticed by Ernie Scoffham, member of the committee for the evaluation of the works, who also subsequently proposed my collaboration in the realization of this volume.

The study was further developed in the following years through my doctoral thesis on the INTERBELIC ROMANIAN INTERBELIC MODERNIST MOVEMENT IN BUCHARESTAN ^{ARCHITECTURE3}, from which the text of the book was practically extracted and prepared for the English version.

The co-author is the architect Ernie

Scoffham, at that time reader at the Urban Architecture School, University of Nottingham (UK), whose merit was precisely to impose on the text, after its translation into English, that type of presentation with an almost didactic character, permissive for the uninitiated reader, for whom not only the modernist phenomenon was unknown, but also many aspects of Romanian history and culture.

The last chapter of the book, entitled Liberation, was written by Ernie Scoffham and includes remarks on the state of contemporary Romanian architecture, as well as his vision of a possible evolution of Romanian architecture in the coming years, drawing a parallel with the inter-war period presented in the book.

Our guest of honor to write the introduction of the book was the architect Șerban ^Cantacuzino4, son of George Matei Cantacuzino. The introduction develops many previously unpublished biographical elements about G.M.C., one of the main personalities of interwar culture in Romania.

At the time of the research, the general international trend of re-evaluating the avant-garde and modernism had reached its peak.

The exhibitions organized by the UAR in the early 1990s and the first monographs dedicated to Horia Creangă and Marcel Iancu had begun to "unravel" a field that had remained in many ways hidden from the fundamental studies of architectural history.

The distribution system of the books published by MIT Press meant that the volume found its way into the libraries of the major universities and, implicitly, aroused the interest of specialists, students, teachers and researchers in the subject.

Currently, the book is in 293 ^libraries5 and appears as a bibliography of books, articles, doctoral studies, master's theses, etc., which have had as a direct or tangential subject the Romanian interwar architecture or that of the Eastern European cultural area, thus confirming the necessity and timeliness of its publication.

It has been evaluated by critics, who routinely analyze the publications of this publishing house, being able to appreciate both the quality of the approach and the analysis, and especially the value and character of the Romanian modernist phenomenon in the context of the ^{international} current6.

The multitude of comments, which we systematically received through the care of the MIT Press editors, confirmed the novelty of the information, the interest in the nuances and the re-evaluation of the tendencies of Romanian interwar modernism, as well as the clear, almost scholastic form of the analysis and presentation, appreciated especially in Western and American academic academic circles.

The impact on foreign readers has also resulted in an increased interest in getting to know more closely the authors and achievements of Romanian modernist architecture.

I would mention a group of young ^architects7 graduates of the Technische Universität München (TUM).

In 2001, under the guidance of Prof. Winfried ^Nerdinger8, they produced an exhibition and a guide Moderne in Bukarest, based on the book, which was presented at TUM, at the N-ERGIE Centrum in Nuremberg in 2002 and at the Architektur im Ringturm galleries in Vienna in 2004. The exhibition and the guidebook presented, in a synthesized form, some of the most representative Romanian inter-war realizations, which we selected, together with them, from the initial research material.

Also as an echo of this editorial publication, covering not only the interwar period but also the Romanian architecture of the last 100 years, was the exhibition and the catalogue of the exhibition entitled RUMÄNIEN - Momente der Architektur vom 19. Jahrhundert bis heute, organized in 2007 by the Architektur im Ringturm galleries, editor the architect Adolf ^Stiller9.

The examples go on...

The question arises as to whether research into the avant-garde phenomenon is still topical and whether it is in itself a driving force for every historical phase of culture and architecture in particular.

In my view, the answer is yes.

The avant-garde, in general, is what pushes history forward, innovates, changes the established order of approach, energizes, is controversial and intrigues conservative and passist circles. It is initially accepted only by certain elites.

The avant-garde imposes itself by overturning established concepts, it usually fights an unequal battle with the hostile environment in which it emerges, but sooner or later history confirms its true values. It leads to the emergence of new trends and tendencies in art and architecture, energizes the creative process and reveals vocations and arguments that were unknown and not immediately accepted.

If, outside Romania, the book has had the role of informing about an unknown period in our cultural history, the Romanian reader may have the revelation, which I myself had during my research into this phenomenon, that the avant-garde or novelty in architecture can easily be amended by a conservative society or one lacking the cultural openness of the elite.

Comparing the present moment of Romanian architecture with the fate of inter-war architecture, in the spirit of the concluding chapter by Ernie

Scoffham, one can conclude:

After, in the communist era, the classification and hierarchy of values in architecture was imposed directly or indirectly by communist party activists, we are now witnessing an offensive tendency to assert opinions also from outside the guild, "democratic activists", loud voices of non-professionals, who are making themselves strongly heard in the media, as opinion formers and value judgments on contemporary architecture and urbanism (and beyond), based on subjective, fundamentally flawed criteria, in a misunderstood form of democracy.

The risk inevitably arises of denigrating works of substance, innovative and avant-garde in character (as was the case with the early works of Horia Creangă, Marcel Iancu, etc.) in favor of a passalistic and mediocre architecture.

Romanian contemporary architecture of value (as much as it exists) is sometimes presented in a distorted way to the Romanian general public, distorting the aesthetic education and cultural information received by society.

Only pertinent criticism, reasoned analysis from within the profession, formulated by competent observers, connected to international trends, can objectively separate and highlight, now as then, the true values.

Looking back more than 70 years after the inter-war period, today it is much easier to formulate a coherent critical view of the modernist movement, decanted in time and freed from the subjectivism, errors and pressure of the moment.

It will probably always be time that will (re)establish the hierarchy of contemporary architecture in Romania.

As far as the protection and enhancement of this heritage is concerned, I believe that there is still much to be done.

Many of the landmark buildings mentioned in this book are not yet included in the list of historical monuments, a list that is often drawn up more on the basis of decorative elements, among which the achievements of modernist architecture are harder to spot.

This is also one of the reasons why I proposed - and unfortunately I have not yet found the necessary time, but I hope that in the future I will succeed - to publish the Romanian version of this book.

It would not be a translation of the English-language edition, which in a way was limited by the conditions imposed by MIT Press (in terms of number of pages, number of illustrations, drawings, etc.), but would include all the material of the study originally written in Romanian, in much more detail, in the hope of providing those interested with a working tool or a starting point for further research.

³ The doctoral thesis was supervised by Professor Mihail Caffé.

⁴ Șerban Cantacuzino, former editor of The Architectural Review and then secretary of the Royal Fine Art Commission in London.

⁵ according to information link: http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n98-80892; Here, the book has the following presentation: This is the first book in English to reveal the extent to which modern architecture flourished in Romania - and is still visible as a neglected and almost forgotten past amid the contradictions of present-day Bucharest.

⁶ see l'Architecture d'aujourd'hui no. 334, May-June 2001.

⁷ arh. Horia Georgescu, arh. Ana Gabriela Castello Branco Dos Santos and designer-photographer Pierre Levy.

⁸ Architectural historian, director of the TUM Museum of Architecture.

9 The curators of the exhibition RUMÄNIEN - Momente der Architektur vom 19. Jahrhundert bis heute were: Ștefan Ghenciulescu, Ana Maria Machedon, Luminița Machedon and Adolf Stiller.

The volume was edited by one of the most prestigious academic printing houses, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (USA).

Launched in 1999 at New York, London and ^Bucharest1, the volume had the role to initiate a recovering approach on the Romanian Modern Movement and offered the foreign readers the possibility to get in touch with this phenomenon.

At the time, it was the first MIT Press book having a Romanian author.

The book editing was enabled by Getty Foundation scholarship, within the Getty Grant Program, being part of a list of about 40 works on East-European culture, selected to be published, in the MIT ^Press2 conditions.

At the manuscript reception, the program manager, Roger Conover, fascinated and astonished in the same time by the fact that the architecture presented in the book was still existing in Bucharest (unfortunately, Romanian's image in the media was perceived in the USA quite differently from reality), did not hesitate to make a short visit, to "convince himself" by the existence of this heritage.

Unknown and hidden for a long time, the Romanian modern architecture between the Two World Wars did not represent the goal of international researchers and critics' analysis, mainly because in Romania the phenomenon hadn't been at the time, enough studied.

The Romanian Modern Movement was rather a "blank domain" in the reference studies of foreign historians and researchers.

A profound critical critical analysis as an information source in order to define the character, the value and position of the Romanian Avant-garde and Modernism manifested earlier abroad and expressed afterwards in new tonalities in Bucharest, after the First World War, was missing.

The book started from the research Bucharest Interwar Modern Architecture, accomplished in 1994, within a scholarship granted by Soros Foundation at the Central European University, from Prague, and had the chance to be discovered by Ernie Scoffham, a works evaluation committee member, who showed interest to collaborate for the production of this volume.

The study was developed the following years through my Ph.D. thesis entitled ROMANIAN INTERWAR MODERN MOVEMENT IN BUCHAREST ^{ARCHITECTURE3}, the basic source of the text for the English version.

The co-author of the volume was the architect Ernie Scoffham, at that time reader at Urban Architecture School, University of Nottingham (UK). Through his contribution, he gave the text, after its translation in English, an almost scholastic character, permissive for the non professionals, to whom not only the modern phenomenon was unknown, but also many of the Romanian history and culture aspects.

The last chapter of the book, entitled Liberation, was written by Ernie Scoffham and included remarks over the Romanian contemporary architecture, as well as his vision over a possible evolution of the Romanian architecture in the following years, as an analogy to the interwar period presented in the research.

Our honorable guest for the book's introduction was the architect Șerban ^Cantacuzino4, son of George Matei Cantacuzino. The introduction reveals many biographical elements on G.M.C., one of the main personalities of Romanian interwar culture.

At the time of the research, the international general tendency to reevaluate the Avant-garde and Modernism had reached in a way its highest interest point.

The exhibitions organized by the UAR (Union of Romanian Architects), at the beginning of the '90, the first monograph dedicated to Horia Creangă and Marcel Iancu started to reveal a domain hidden - from many points of view - to the fundamental studies of architecture history.

The distribution system of MIT Press enabled the volume to get into the libraries of many famous universities and, at the same time, to stimulate the interest of specialists, students, professors and researchers on this subject.

Now, the book is available in 293 ^libraries5 and is quoted in books, articles, Ph.D. studies, master degree thesis thesis bibliography that have the Romanian interwar architecture or East-European culture as a direct or tangential subject, confirming the need and the opportunity of its publication.

It was evaluated by the critics, reviewers that currently analyze the MIT Press issues, able to appreciate the quality of the approach and mainly of the Romanian modernist phenomenon value and character in the ^{international6} context.

The comments received from the MIT Press editors confirmed the information's novelty, the interest for the Romanian interwar modern nuances, but also for the clear and almost scholastic form of the analysis and presentation, appreciated in the Western and North American universities.

The impact on the foreign readers had as a result a growing interest to discover the authors and their achievements in Modern Romanian Architecture.

I would remind a group of young architects'⁷ graduates of the Technishe Universität München (TUM).

In 2001, starting from the book, they produced, under the guidance of the professor Winfried ^Nerdinger8, an exhibition and a guide, Moderne in Bukarest, presented at TUM, at N-ERGIE Centrum from Nüremberg, in 2002, at the Architektur im Ringturm galleries from Wien, in 2004. The exhibition and guide pointed out, in a synthesis, some of the most representative results of Romanian interwar architecture, which we had selected together, from the book's research material.

As an echo of this book issue, including not only the interwar period, but also the Romanian architecture of the last 100 years, was also the exhibition and catalog RUMÄNIEN - Momente der Architektur vom 19. Jahrhundert bis heute, that took place in 2007 at the Architektur im Ringturm galleries, with the architect Adolf ^Stiller9 as editor.

And the examples could continue ...

We may ask if the Avant-garde phenomenon research is still of interest and if it can represent an engine for each cultural historical stage, especially for architecture.

From my point of view the answer is affirmative.

The Avant-garde, in general, pushes forward the development of history, innovates, changes the established approaches, gives dynamics, is controversial and intrigues the conservative and old fashion circles. Initially it is accepted only by certain elite.

The Avant-garde imposes itself by ending the accustomed concepts, fights from an unequal position against the hostile environment it develops in, but sooner or later history confirms its real values. It enables new currents and tendencies in art and architecture, brings dynamics to the creative process and discovers unknown and not instantly accepted vocations and arguments.

If abroad the book had the role to inform over an unknown period of our cultural history, the Romanian reader might have had the revelation that I encountered too during the research of this phenomenon, that the Avant-garde or innovation in architecture can be easily attacked by a conservative society or one that lacks the cultural opening and education of the elites.

Comparing the actual moment of Romanian architecture with the interwar architecture's destiny, in the ending chapter written by Ernie Scoffham, we may conclude:

After the communist period, where the architectural classification and hierarchy was imposed directly or indirectly by the communist party activists, we find nowadays an offensive tendency by imposing opinions from the outside of the architectural professional environment. The "democratic activists", intensive voices of non-professionals, are promoted by the mass-media, as opinion, judgments and trend setters regarding contemporary architecture and urbanism, based on subjective criteria, fundamentally wrong, in a misunderstood democratic way.

The risk to denigrate important architectural projects, with innovative and Avant-garde character appears inevitably (as it was the case of the first works of Horia Creangă, Marcel Iancu, s.o.) sustaining old-fashioned and mediocre architecture.

The valuable Romanian architecture (as much as we have) is presented sometimes in a deformed way to the public, altering the esthetical education and the cultural information of the society.

Only pertinent critique, argued analysis inside the professional environment, assessed by competent observers, connected to the international currents, may separate and objectively highlight, nowadays as in the past, the real values.

After more than 70 years from the interwar period, looking retrospectively today is much easier to state a coherent critique over the Modern Movement, filtered in time and released from the subjectivism and errors of the moment's pressure.

Probably, only time will (re)assess the Romanian contemporary architecture.

Regarding the architectural heritage protection and evaluation, I believe that there is still a lot to do. Many of the reference buildings quoted in my book are still not included in the list of historical monuments, list that is often made exclusively on the criteria of decorative elements existence, among which obviously the achievements of modern architecture are difficult to be identified.

This is one of the reasons I decided - and unfortunately it did not yet find the time, but I hope that in the future I shall succeed - to publish the Romanian version of this book.

This would not be a translation of the English edition, that in a way was limited by the MIT Press conditions (number of pages, number of illustrations, drawings, etc) but would include the entire study initially written in Romanian, more detailed, hoping to offer to those interested a working instrument or a starting point for further researches.

³ The Ph.D. thesis was under the guidance of professor Mihail Caffe.

⁴ Șerban Cantacuzino, former editor in chief of The Architectural Review being at that time secretary of the Royal Fine Art Commission in London.

⁵ According to the information link: http://www.worldcat.org/identitis/Iccn-n98-80892; In here the book has the following presentation: "This is the first book in English to reveal the extent to which modern architecture flourished in Romania - and is still visible as a neglected and almost forgotten past amid the contradictions of present-day Bucharest".

⁶ See l'Architecture d'aujourd'hui no. 334 May-June 2001.

⁷arch. Horia Georgescu, arch. Ana Gabriela Castello Branco Dos Santos and the designer-photographer Pierre Levy.

⁸ Architecture historian, director of the Architecture Museum in TUM.

⁹ RUMÄNIEN - Momente der Architektur vom 19.

Jahrhundert bis heute ex-hibition curators were: Ana Maria Machedon, Luminița Machedon, Ștefan Ghenciulescu and Adolf Stiller.