Cluj / Quad & Ars Longa

Between the telluric conditionings of real architecture and the narcotic charm of today's virtual world, QUAD & Ars Longa establish a cleen and sensitive creative territory. Each detail, a subtly elaborated replica of an erudite creative approach, finds resonance in the sonority of the final score. The ephemeral condition of the architectural object created and subject to time is contemplated, integrated and metamorphosed into a stunning "maximalist story".

Since 2006, Ars Longa and QUAD Studio have been collaborating for the realization of residential and commercial projects in Cluj County and other areas of the country. At a later stage, the group's activity expanded with some urban planning works. The effort of a coherent creative approach, expressed through participation in architectural competitions, strengthened the design team: arch. Radu Rosca, arh. Diana Taloș, arh. Flaminiu Taloș, arh. Adelina Boloț.

The QUAD Studio & Ars Longa projects cover a wide range of activities: design, architecture, urbanism, structure, installations and landscaping. The group's wide-ranging skills cover several elite fields: legal and financial advice, image and impact studies, working in multidisciplinary teams, project management, urban planning and integration, and documentation for structural funds. The experience gained is reflected both in the optimization of construction costs and in the quality of the group's products. For QUAD Studio & Ars Longa, the complexity of often unusual conditions is answered and resolved in the overall and detail design.

Why build when the space is more and more difficult to approach, more and more virtual, more and more relative, when you know that everything you do will not last, will be abandoned, forgotten, recycled, in full ecological fervor and fear of depletion of resources. By conceptually avoiding architecture, we may be rediscovering it again. We are in a marginal drift to grand architecture and contextualism, still hoping to meet at some point in a maximalist grand narrative.

QUAD StudioTeam: arh. Radu Roșca, arh. Claudia Betea, arh. Andreea Moțu Contact: quadstudio@gmail.comFax: 0364.816.431

Ars LongaTeam: arh. Diana Taloș, arh. Flaminiu Taloș, arh. Adelina Boloț Contact: proiect.arslonga@gmail.com http://arslonga.aico.ro http://arslonga.aico.ro http://www.aico.ro Tel/Fax: 0264. 438.131

i-Cube Pavilion

The i-Cube Pavilion achieves a reverse performance: the architectural object does not assert its presence in the landscape, but on the contrary, makes a consistent and subtle effort of self-dissolving into the environment. The landscaping concept of the area adjacent to the Avalon Building (the i-Cube Pavilion) takes up and extends the idea of disguising the pavilion's presence in the garden. Thus, for the site, a diagonal rather than a frontal direction of façade staging - the pavilion's only façade - was advocated. Extensions of the single facade that "steal" the foreground are proposed, in turn:

- a layer of gabions strongly discretizing the plane of the façade, the metal portal waiting for hanging plants to cover it from below and above, from the enclosed terrace;

- the balcony that connects the pavilion to the site, the garden and the enclosure alleys;

- the morphology of the house, trapped in a fold in the land, creates inaccessible areas between the slope of the 'valley' and the slope of the 'hill'. These, loaded with large broken stone, form a 'threshold' together with the entrance.

The allusions to Plato's 'cave' go further, lighting a 'fire' of red-foliaged plants in front, in which you can sit and - why not? - project. The adjacent trompe-l'œil carving gives depth to the façade. The amphitheater in the slope, as a dominant perspective, distracts from the plane of the façade. The solution of the lawn in the "square of knowledge", furnished for contacts, is circumstantial. We hope that asserting the communication function makes our intentions more accessible and makes it easier for the beneficiaries to approach the proposed space. We also hope that the design has relieved some of the stress caused by the construction of an atypical building, by the contradictory relationships that might arise in the garden of Pákei Lajos's house. If I have brought at least one plus or minus to the architectural collection, it remains to be... trimmed, cut, groomed, to be discussed, perhaps, at bellevue, on the grassy terrace, still green and spontaneous, above and inside Cluj, on the slope of the banks of the Someș, which in the "not so old studies" was supposed to give identity to the city.

i-Cube Pavilion Virtual reality projection equipment/therapy and research space Design team: QUAD Studio & Ars Longa Architectural office: QUAD Studio & Ars Longa Architectural and urban planning: arh. Radu Roșca/arch. Flaminiu Taloș (main authors) arh. Diana Taloș Structure and optimizations: eng. Virag Jacint/eng. Dan Turda Installations and building: eng. Radu Miclăuș Layouts and details: arh. Radu Roșca, arh. Flaminiu Taloș, arh. Sztahura Mark, stud. Carmen Bărbat Photo: Adelina Boloț, Radu Roșca Location: 37 Gheorghe Bilașcu str., Cluj-Napoca Beneficiary: "Babeș Bolyai" University, Cluj-Napoca Function: Education Design/Execution: 2009-2010/2011 Construction area: 450 sq.m. Landscaped area: 1.500 sq.m.