Cluj / Coop/Area3
AREA3 is a non-profi(t) organization associated with blipsz! and is involved in the following types of actions:
- international exchange of professional experience and knowledge;
- the study of the urban natural-anthropic complex system and neglected architectural heritage of the 20th century;
- undermining or emphasizing conflictual situations in urban culture through artistic actions.
AREA3 is convinced that the solution is: regional, d.i.y.,, prefabricated, low-fi and low-tech, understanding of traditional architecture and urbanism, vernacular, self-sufficient at community level, local & global, simple, spontaneous, sincere.
Year of foundation: 2006
Founding members:
Lóránd BARTHA (A.D.A. / blokad, Brașov), István BENEDEK (blipsz!, Cluj), István PÁSZTOR (blipsz!, Cluj), Zsolt SZÉNÁSI-PAPP (blipsz!, Cluj)
Address:
str. Aurel Suciu, nr. 20/10, Cluj
11/1 Constantin Daicoviciu str., Cluj
contact:
office@area3.ro
areacube@gmail.com
Adventures on the industrial platform
Five teams of artists and architects from Austria, Hungary and Romania experiment with photo-video on the industrial platform in Cluj-Napoca, resulting in five short films. The aim of the project is to experiment with the animation of these places through fresh concepts and contrasts, with the transformation of specific spaces into interfaces that allow time-travel, gravity release or any other artistic concept. It was filmed on three occasions, 2-3 days each, in August 2010, after which it was edited. Each team spent the workshop period in Cluj, in the industrial area of the city: from the fascinating everyday bustle of the 1 Mai Square, the "real center" still for some of the inhabitants, to the gradual, infinite melting of the production halls into the landscape and infrastructure at the eastern end of the city. Three video installation exhibitions took place in Cluj (Fabrica de Pensule), Vienna (office02 expo space) and Budapest (Sokszem Galéria).
The short films can be watched on:
http://area3.ro/index_files/Page495_picnic.htm.
COOP on the streets
A group activated in 2008, COOP CLUJ aims to focus and intensify the sensitivity and passion of residents and social actors for understanding the urban system and culturally generated phenomena, in contrast to the pressure of primitive opportunism, reported in euros per square meter or political capital. The AREA3 Association initiates COOP CLUJ in the hope of acquiring, not only in solidarity, but above all actively, as many vectors as possible.
The first edition of COOP Cluj in 2009 launches the "creative guild" in the collection of ideas and small projects related to the most varied problems of Cluj. This was followed by the thematic workshop "Traffic" of the 2010-2011 edition, finalized by a series of exhibitions entitled "PARALEL". In 2011, the initiators hand over the concept for continuation and transformation to the first series of new passionate "vectors": "COOP on the street".
In the absence of a reliable method of diagnosis and simulation, the internalized quests of the beginnings the new generation responds by externalizing the concepts and contaminating the urban being in an experimental manner.
The first application attempts in ZA 2011, materializing ideas from the "Traffic" workshop, outline a possible course of action, operationalized in the 2011-2012 project on "Reactivating public spaces in residential neighbourhoods".
The project is aiming for a possible change in quality of life, which would be meaningless without the involvement of the people it targets. In a preparatory phase, multidisciplinary working groups were formed to propose activities to those directly targeted (exhibitions and workshops were brought into the community, targeting both children and adults), pretexts for further prefacing starting in spring/summer 2012. The interactive COOP is the decisive factor for the sustainability of these prefaces.
+coop 2009 edition
+coop 2011 edition
The powerful and charismatic COOP Cluj message attracts and arouses civic attitudes. Playful, provocative, but also methodical and connected to the new, COOP urges us to savor the amazing cocktail of a cool intellectual attitude and an effervescent effect.
Project Space - the other city: CLUJ
Collaboration in the realization of the Cluj edition of the workshop series of wonderland - platform for European architecture.
Theme of the workshop: "Vacancy"/"Empty spaces": study of the industrial area of Cluj. Participants selected through international competition: Ronald Boer, Jonmar van Vlijmen/placemakers (NL), Roland Kreb /urban issues (AT) and Levente Polyák (HU), Erika Barth coop on the street (RO). Lydia Wissa (wonderland, AT), Lorenz Potocnik, Gunar Wilhelm (umbauwerkstatt.atw, Linz, AT), joined by local architects Camelia Sisak, Tamás Sisak, Marius Moga/Atelier MASS, miniMASS, Sebastian Ionescu, István Benedek, Zsolt Szénási / AREA3, blipsz!
Workshop products:
- A series of postcards addressed to the administration and residents;
- a set of urban rules for restructuring the urban industrial platform over time;
- a proposal for an event to promote and develop entrepreneurial, technological and urban development spirit and knowledge, addressed to users and owners of real estate in the area;
- strategies for urban integration of un/deutilized industrial areas with potential heritage value - comparative study of some situations in Cluj county, with examples of good practice (development guide) - in preparation.