Zoom in/out (between)question and answer

ZOOM IN/OUT biroudearchitecture; in fact, ZOOM IN/OUT is an architecture office; we think that, like the already established "bardezi", the wording "biroudearchitecture" gives us the opportunity to be a bit ironic, to play with our real "size"; I think that, at one point, we tried several variations of the subtitle, but we came to the conclusion that "the man has to know what it's all about"; in fact, ZOOM IN/OUT is a small office trying to propose its own variant of answers; well, it sounds pretentious... "Our 'growth' means, first and foremost, questions... and a routeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu to the answer.

The good thing about questions is that they manage to keep you awake; the bad thing is that they often keep you awake at night, and when you're out with friends, and when you should be relaxing, and when it's about something else; we grow by asking; by being curious to the point of exasperation; we torment each other and often ourselves; we put question marks at the beginning of ideas and at the end of ideas; we question everything; arrogance?! (here's the question)... we would say it's more about searching, insecurity, distrust, learning, curiosity, transformation and many other "ands"; ultimately growth...

how do we approach this?; what do we want to say?; what does the beneficiary want?; "do you understand something?!?!?!"; what does this mean?; do we try or not?; why this way and not another way?; how would it be better?; but how have others done it?; have you looked on the net?; have you seen that project?have you looked at the details?; but is it ok?; shouldn't we put something else?; have you talked to the others?; what did they say?; did they say it's ok?; is there a way to solve it?; is this what he wants?; did I understand it correctly?; what does the contract stipulate?; did you make the invoice?; did you submit that?; is it enough?; when is the money coming in?; what do we do with it?; do you really think it's good?; is it not too much?; do you want to leave more of your own?; are we going to budget?; what is the budget?; what do we have to do today?; have you been on the site?; is it staying?; are you finished?; do you know when we have handover?; is the net down again?; are the renderings finished?; why is the door opening like that?; who does this and how much does it cost?; where do we find the change?; who talks to him?; is it finished?; are we happy?; do we have a weekend this weekend?....

Questions are like heart rate - they keep the body ZOOM IN/OUT.

Just as true is that they are often childish; just as true is that the process itself often suffers; "well, me, what a question you ask!!!!"; percentage-wise, we cannot publicize about how many questions went unanswered or how many answers discouraged us or seized our engines; just as we cannot state with certainty about how many times we were inconvenient, annoying and off-topic by asking; just as, not infrequently, we found ourselves asking and discussing things that had nothing to do with the "project", the "beneficiary" or the "architecture".

"Why are they ringing the bells, Humpty? -By the string..."

Someone, sometime, somewhere, said that it is important to know how to ask the right question (or questions)... well, what they are we haven't found out yet; still, we fill A4 pages with sketches and questions; we are in the beginning; we are growing... we are growing "architecture" and hopefully "architecture" is growing us...

for ZOOM IN/OUT, the clouds are still going...

The answers... must provide, crystallize, set mile markers and landmarks; the answers we have been able to provide so far define the map of our exist-ence within the phenomenon of "architecture"; they define our degree of (i)maturity, (lack)of drama(s) of talent,

our (in)ability to communicate with our beneficiaries, the extent to which we have (failed) to 'succeed', the (long) road we still have to travel.

They define us... they don't always belong to us, they imply a continuous "struggle", with ourselves, with the next person, with others and with the "architecture"... the answers are the result of a process on which we have signed a blank check; they are contradictory, often aberrant and require assumption; it is difficult to say "yes, that's what we do" when the range of possible answers is so wide; sometimes simple, sometimes difficult to intuit, they are, in the end, the only ones that complete the stages in the process of "growth" and "architecture"; we try not to put "right" or "wrong" in their place; their mere existence is much more important to us than these attributes; a 'wrong' answer can be the source of the unraveling of many threads, just as a 'right' answer can mean superficiality, a process of maceration that has ended much too early; we encourage our collaborators, our beneficiaries to answer the questions with us, because 'architecture' is not an occult science that belongs to us alone; architecture is a flow of energy and information that is transformed in the end into an answer - given to us, given to the beneficiaries and to the immediate on whose matrix it becomes grafted.

The ZOOM IN/OUT answers are only some of the possible hypostases of the "answer"; the different context, the affective permissiveness, the intellectual capacity to penetrate the questions and the challenges raised define only one possible hypostasis of the answer; it is difficult to speak in self-critical terms about what has been proposed, done, not yet done, because all these "answers" have been justified at their T0 moment; we believe that much more important is the approach, the attempt to understand how this whole process can be clearer, more fertile and more permissive for all those who participate in it.

And these lines are a variant of a response; a response to the challenge of talking about us, from the perspective of "growing architects"; we have tried to tell about us and about our direct relationship with this spectacular phenomenon that is "architecture", from the perspective of a young entity; incapable perhaps, at this moment, of talking about ideas, concept, style, trends, vectors of action, management, solutions to make the process more efficient, etc.; we are in the moment in which we are trying to position ourselves on the thread of the flow; to understand how we can influence this whole process and how it influences us; how we can give consistency and credibility to the ZOOM IN/OUT answers, but also "grow", "dospire" the inner kernel that connects us to this spectacular "whole"; what it means, how to decode it, how we manage (or not) to respond to all the challenges it offers us;

Just as nea Florentin, in his wisdom of a contemporary Master Craftsman, considered it logical to put another pillar (without foundation) in addition to those given by ZOOM IN/OUT (and collaborators), influencing with his divine touch irredeemably the "response" to the beneficiary, in the same way we consider it "logical", or much more logical, to look with hunger, appetite and much modesty at both our "growth" and the capacity of the "architecture" to be, to exist in itself and to absorb very diverse energies.

So... if you find yourself pulsating like the ZOOM IN/OUT organism, it means that you are growing too and that these lines belong to you as well.

Favorit subway station

Project nominated for the 2009 edition of the Bucharest Architecture Annual in the Studies and Projects Section. We tried to design a "slightly different" space for Bucharest's underground transport system; the Favorit metro station proposed, in our vision, a zenithally lit platform waiting area, an underground pedestrian passage for the flow of overground traffic, a public space in the Favorit complex area directly linked to the existing underground parking and a landmark for the area in the Drumul Taberei neighborhood.

Situated on the route of the new M5 bus line, the proposal was intended to be an alternative, at least in theory, to the project to be built. In this way, we encourage the emergence of architectural competitions for any type of Romanian public space.

Speakers: arh. Brîndușa Tudor, arh. Cristian Oprea

SUN

At the beginning of 2011, we started a long-term collaboration with EXPOPEDIA. The pretext was the development, within the SUN PLAZA shopping complex, of an open space for summer activities; an ambitious project covering approximately 3.000 square meters and which wanted, through the entire program developed in partnership between EXPOPEDIA and SUN PLAZA, to offer a space and a good quality atmosphere to the citizens of Bucharest; a project with demands, with requirements and which was born in record time for its size and nature; this year, the SUN SENSATIONS summer terrace reopened, based on a new landscaping project, which kept the important elements implemented in 2011, but was based on transformation, improvement and experimentation; both in 2011 and this year, the early summer tan was the first time the site was caught.

ApM

One of the first ZOOM IN/OUT projects, which, through all the "adventure" through which it has passed us, has been the type of project-school; one of the beloved projects where the fundamental element has been the mutual trust between us and the beneficiaries; the dialog has proved to be the generator of all the answers that are found in this project; at this moment, it is still living well there, and the family has increased in the meantime its number of members.

Contributors: arh. Brîndușa Tudor, arh. Dragoș Coman

C.BV

An attempted answer for a group of houses at BV; we proposed a solution that would "satisfy" both the thematic demands of the beneficiary and our inner need to "laze" somewhere far away, in a pleasant space, without telephones, without Bucharest and without "architecture"; the joy was short-lived, as the beneficiary withdrew from the project; we still hope.