Triangles. An urban experiment

Triangle. An urban experiment is the materialization of a project won after a public tender organized by the City Hall of Câmpia Turzii. The specifications proposed both the technical and detail design and the execution of a trilobate artesian fountain according to the S.F. extract (see images).

The analysis of the project proposed for detailing and of the existing situation led us to make an inventory of the public spaces in the working-class neighborhood. It was built in the 1980s to accommodate the families of the workers of the local metallurgical plant and marks a period of industrialization and forced urbanization. It is a typical neighborhood for that period, with collective dwellings on the ground floor and 4 storeys built of prefabricated elements. Due to the 'household' nature of its inhabitants, all possible public spaces have been transformed over time into parking lots, garages or enclosed, thus becoming semi-private and private spaces.

From the conclusions of this inventory was born the need to radically change the design theme by placing the trilobate artesian fountain in a secondary plan, priorities becoming the creation of a public space as a social catalyst, but also the infusion of new green spaces.

We adopted a strong position by proposing a new strategy in which we tried to convince the municipality of the need for a public space, but also for a change in the aesthetics and usefulness of the fountain that was to be built. It is important to note that, at this point in the endeavor, no sketch, no architectural concept.... just an idea that the fountain should be an element that allows interaction with water and that it should be an integral part of the public space. The idea was accepted with one amendment from the municipality - and that was to incorporate a vertical element in the new design.

We started the public space design process with the triangle shape and site constraints as a starting point. The use of the word process is very important because it reflects the way we perceive the manifestation of architecture and therefore the way we work. Architecture does not have a single author and does not derive directly from a brilliant sketch, but is the result of teamwork - including the client and the builder - the outcome of which cannot be imagined by any one member of the team, initially or individually^.1

The fact that the vast majority of the inhabitants of the working-class neighborhood are in their 60s, i.e. grandparents with grandchildren, led to the construction of a vegetation barrier/obstacle along Rue Muresului to protect the pedestrian zone from the roadway. A second vegetation barrier provides noise protection for the collective residential building adjacent to the site.

The idea of interacting with the water gave rise to several solutions, which we discarded along the way... we started with the image of a lakeshore which gradually evolved into the idea of a landscape integrating both the vegetation barriers and the fountain. Thanks to this mode of expression, the fountain allows and invites interaction through the multitude of horizontal and inclined planes that facilitate access to the water. We have tried to incorporate the vertical element requested by the municipality in different variants throughout the study, the best solution found being that of water jets that originate in an accident in the aforementioned landscape.

The benches are one of the most important elements of the project, designed by us due to the desire to avoid (due to low budget) the choice of catalog pieces. We envisioned these benches in the form of triangular prisms whose angularity derives directly from the angularity of the proposed landscape elements. They are made of 5mm steel sheet and incorporate some of the ambient street lighting.

"After studying the different ways of expression, the final form of the project has annulled any decorative or ornamental character of the urban module precisely to emphasize the multiple possibilities of orientation and relationship. Moreover, the opposition between the constructions made of prefabricated, typological materials that characterize the residential blocks on the one hand, and the new urban module on the other, is precisely intended to accentuate a landscape accident of typological conventions. Last but not least, the interaction generated by the new modeling of space bears witness to the fact that the social and, implicitly, political reflex is to practice architecture as an active solution, precisely in order to save the individual's capacity to participate, in an involved way, in a public consciousness."²

NOTES:

1. TED (Producer) (2010, January) Joshua Prince-Ramus: Building a theater that remakes itself . Podcast downloaded from: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/joshua_prince_ramus_building_a_theater_that_remakes_itself.html

2. Borș, S. (2011-2012)."Architectural antitypes". Igloo. nabitat&architecture, 121-122, 64-67.

About ateliercetrei

Members:

Anamaria Moldovan, Florin Vasile Lazăr, Paul Mihai Moldovan

Awards / Distinctions:

2012 - Atelierul de Proiectaremagazine award and nomination in the "Public Space Architecture" Section, at the Bucharest National Architecture Biennale, for the project Triangles. An urban experiment.

2011 - "Public Spaces, Landscape Design" Section Award - OAR Transilvania Awards, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2008 - Shortlisted at the international competition "Building for Bouwkunde - Open to ideas", Delft, The Netherlands

2005 - First Prize [ex-aequo with Blipsz] at the competition "Interactive Museum of Democracy" organized by Rațiu-Pilkington Family Foundation, Turda, Romania

2004 - First Prize [with Șeban Țigănaș] at the international contest "Summer Theatre in the Ciunt Bastion" organized by Bihor County Council, Oradea, Romania

2003 - First Prize at the competition "Ecological Holiday House" organized by Eco-Terra Foundation and the Dutch Embassy in Bucharest, Sibiu, Romania

details at www.ateliercetrei.com