Crisan Architecture & Engineering

Alexandru Crisan

Ana Maria Crișan

www.crisanarch.ro

Francoise Pamfil: Apparently, the name of the firm says it all. Who is Crisan Architecture & Engineering?

Alexandru Crișan: In short, it's us Alexandru and Ana Maria Crișan (the name of the firm is irrelevant), but rarely has it been just us... just us means many, and frequently others. The constant part remains us, especially after 9 p.m. and sometimes until the morning.

Ana Maria Crișan: Beyond that, the team has changed over time. We like to work with young and motivated people who try the impossible, who have no limitations, who are not afraid to try new things.

F.P: How was the office born?

A.C: In 2006 it was built on dreams.... dreams that we could change something... possibly in Romania, dreams about the ability and possibility to create something... creation beyond adapting an existing model or mimicking, partially or entirely, one already built in another part of the world... Romania abounds in such examples. The balkanized expression of "many know, few know" characterizes quite well the architecture in Romania in those years (2000-2008)... a chaos in which architects designed... volumetrically, quantitatively, according to budget or after the construction was completed...

F.P: How does a typical project evolve in CAE?

A.M.C: All projects are different and they are all about questions and answers. The beneficiary's questions, apparently about efficiency, are reduced to the possibility of using a plot of land, the maximum surface area (we live in Romania), sometimes they concern aesthetics - how to build "beautifully"? The most important set of questions, from my point of view, is of place. This is where sincerity of design comes in. In the past we used to call it genius loci, but it seems too infatuated. Essentially it's about the becoming of a place, the energy it has, its potential to attract people, to live in their memory. A forgotten place or forgotten architecture does not exist...

A.C: On a much more complex level come our questions as architects about implementing a program, correlating the points that Ami mentioned and bringing them together under a common vision. One of our recurring questions is what if we lived differently? The universal questioning of the gratuitousness of the present gesture over a generation or two? I recognize that the necessity is of the present, but most frequently the design themes are false - or at least they are badly constructed.

F.P: Do architects make mistakes?

A.M.C: I don't know about others... we all make mistakes. The biggest is to think everything is perfect. No building site is without problems, no project is easy because we are always trying to achieve more, maybe even the impossible, but to answer - we don't make mistakes... extremely few, we are perfectionists and that kills us.

A.C: Finding a solution in architecture seems to look for the road with the fewest mistakes...

F.P: What do you consider to be the biggest mistake?

A.C: Compromise... in general. I realized after years that only the architects of the building know what's best for it, what's going to happen to it in the future. Initially, everyone, from the beneficiary to the contractor, seems to have the best intentions, but they don't think ahead. One change always leads to 10 others, and this is something that others don't foresee or realize when it's too late.

A.M.C: In fact, the team perceives fragments. The only ones who have the complete picture are the architects. And there's something else. For the teams involved, a house (small, large) is a job, a project lasting a few months. For the architect, it's a house he's built for life.

A.C: When it comes to "houses", we're a real oracle... just kidding. Yes, I think we have to look to the future. Turnkey houses don't exist... only in "commercial architecture", the one without personality! That moment (at completion) is only a fraction of its life, an extremely fleeting fraction. The house will live, it will grow old... some of our projects we try to visualize with the finishes already aged... The beneficiaries usually don't do this exercise, they just ask for modifications and perfect finishes, permanent over time... Only plastic is permanent!

Read the full interview in issue 3/2013 of Arhitectura magazine

ARA7

OBIECT DESIGN

MULTIFUNCTIONALINTERIOR PANEL , 2011

use: lighting fixture, wallpaper, partition panel, etc.

design: competition project proposal_Za'abeel Tower_"ThyssenKrupp elevator architecture award

Dubai 2008"

The panel materializes an iconic representation of the Holly Qu'ran sacred writing. We hold this evolution into a stylized architectural pattern as a way of emphasizing on the Islamic ornamentation in terms of both visual and spiritual symbolism. Initially, the model of the panel was based on Kufic image script. As the project took shape on paper, the model evolved into a Cursive script form of representation, which combines the decorative vegetation and geometric interlacing. In our view, the mathematically sophisticated patterns applied on the panel reflect the spiritual form of light in Arabic countries. The geometric pattern starts from one side and becomes more complex as approaching the other side, in a gradual dispersion of light. The rarefaction of the pattern structure suggests the transparency of spiritual enhancement. Simply put, by perforating a panel, we materialize a symbol in light and shadow. Every day the design object, powered by sunlight, writes words on all the 6 sides of a cubicle.

S20

COLLECTIVE HOUSING BUILDING, SECTOR 1, BUCUREȘTI, 2010

height = 5S+P+20E

ground floor footprint = 250 square meters

area = 5.750 sq.m

The proposed collective housing building is a result of the destruction of the existing urban fabric. The building accumulates the specific determinant elements of the neighborhoods, mimicking by migrating the compositional elements. Reaction of the urban fabric, the building proposes an interpretative variant of integration by diversifying the perceptible field at street level. The perception of the mathematical space determined by the restructuring of the urban fabric matrix generates connections between the perceptible fields of urban existence. The ability to recognize accents in the individual perceptible field relates connections at the level of individual memory previously established based on the identification of a predetermined pattern. The decomposition of neighborhoods and relating to the resulting residues determines a rule of composition similar to mimetic connections at the brain level. The volumetry shows a differentiated structuring, determining mathematical values that recompose the architectural space.

C29

COLLECTIVE HOUSING BUILDING, SECTOR 1, BUCUREȘTI, 2008

height = 4S+P+4+4/10E

ground floor footprint = 300 sq.m

area = 3.900 sq.m

The proposed volumetric insertion constitutes a solution for a corner lot located at the intersection of two traffic arteries, completing the existing unstructured fronts: 1. by emphasizing/underlining the verticality; 2. by gang-type accesses at ground floor level, specific to the fabric; 3. by a ground floor enclosure-type solution - covered green space; 4. the proposed full-void ratio takes over similar elements of the existing front (predominantly full); 5. the proposed voids follow two typologies: equal-sided voids taken from one front and rectangular voids taken from the adjacent front; 6. in relation to the existing street, the recessed sloping facade mimics the roof slopes of the existing old fabric; 7. the connection between the two main facades was realized by the construction's tessellation on the upper floors, marking the taking over of the distinct fronts.

CAMUFLAJ XLVI

COLLECTIVE HOUSING BUILDING, SECTOR 3, BUCUREȘTI, 2011

height = P+5E

ground floor footprint = 250 sq.m

built area = 5.750 sq.m

The project was a challenge in terms of extremely close neighborhoods and economic efficiency. Responding to the problem of neighborhood visibility, the body is camouflaged behind the outer shell. In this context, economic efficiency was a determining factor in the camouflage substrate: the building becomes a body with minimal heat loss through the full-hollow ratio, through the compact, cellular resolution of the interior. On the other hand, the language of the façade has transformed the economic limitation into a language of its own: the windows are also doors, the closures interpreting the typization as a game played between two elements. Camouflage, perceived in the sense of chromatic integration, determines the monochromaticity of the white body, but also the individualization of the "colored" ground floor, thus fractured from the rest of the ensemble. In Neil Leach's words, from "C<AMO>UFLAGE": "the chameleon uses color changes both to lose/blend into a medium on some occasions and to stand on others. [...] Camouflage therefore acts as a device", relating the object to the given environment through representation, through integration or differentiation. The facade is in the same terms the plane in which camouflage occurs. Camouflage transposes a symbiosis, a form of connectivity, a reinterpretation of the language of the elements in the sense of visual equivalence.

The proposed collective housing building transposes in situ the particular specific elements of adaptability to the destructured environment of the existing fabric. Located on a plot of land whose geometric shape is the result of repeated inefficient subdivisions with an opening to the street frontage of 8.5 m, the collective housing building is developed along one side lengthwise based on the constraints of the neighborhood (calcan). The proposed 5 floors resolve on average 4 apartments per floor, around the 2 vertical circulation nodes, with a flexible interior configuration, relying on a compact scale of living.

UNARTE

COMPETITION NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF ARTS BUCURESTI, 2008

Compositionally, the following were targeted: 1. chromatic unity of the proposed ensemble with the existing background; 2. visual reinterpretation at the level of pedestrian circulation by opening the public area at the ground and first floor level to the virtual space generated by the cathedral and the proposed Cathedral Plaza square; 3. visual identity through the transparency of volumes, the suspension of the C3 body on pillars and the enhancement of the existing restored historical monument; the green calcanum proposed for the C1 body; 4. fluidization of spaces and circulation at ground floor level; 5. transparency towards the monument building through the inter-glazing of the exhibition space at ground floor level; 7. creation of an interior perimeter circulation unifying the functions of the proposed buildings with the preserved existing buildings; 8. possibility of using the terraces for outdoor work/exhibition spaces; 9. filtering of light; 10. accesses divided by functions through the 4 vertical circulation nodes; 11. taking over the existing body C1 by means of a proposed vegetal panel correlated with the transparent vertical node; 12. connection to the existing buildings without altering the original image of the old built background; 13. creation of a visual open space to the pedestrian by "freeing" the ground floor and first floor; correlation of the created space with the accesses to the enclosure, public functions located at ground floor level; 14. volumes: the volume of the bookshop suspended above the landscaped public space, marking the main access to the enclosure; the major volume proposed towards rue Berthelot with alignment towards the historic monument, housing spaces for graphic and painting workshops, seminar rooms, master's rooms and exhibition spaces on the ground and 1st floors.

ZA01

ZA'ABEEL TOWER COMPETITION

DUBAI, 2009

We envisage an iconic image for the new face of Dubai, an image that harmoniously connects the history and the present time of this famous city. Conceptually, this iconic image recreates symbolically, through architectural means, the alchemical transformation from one natural stage to another, without distorting the meaning of the former or the functionality of the latter. Consequently, we consider the location the key element of the transformation and, since it acts as a liaison between the past and the future, we propose minor interventions on the street/park level. This is our way of saying we believe in recreating the primordial stages of Dubai before the major urbanization efforts.

Therefore, we do not obscure the symbolic value of the sand by bringing modern abstractions to the center stage. Instead, we hold the sand as the primordial element in our work and we only look for ways to express its impact through architectural shapes. This is the reason why we consider the desert dunes as the starting point of our project. We attempt to find coherent and functional paths to materialize the signaling value of this symbol. Subsequently, we bring to architectural life the land-representation concept by means of sky-transparency [...].

The Tower tells a simple symbolic story. We present the tradition in the shape of the signs. From a distance, the signs become drawings. Upon scrutiny, the drawings become writings. Through visitation, the meaning of the writings becomes apparent, since the meaning of the words becomes clear. We have a seemingly tower of sand, which functionally is a tower of gold, but which conceptually is a tower of words. Of all the words we need to express ourselves while visiting this building. Most importantly, since behind the words are primordial symbols, like the sand, there is no danger to lose or communication way. We are not building a modern-day Babel tower, but, to the contrary, a tower that helps us understand each other through its functionality.

The tower comprises two key elements: the skin with decorative engravings and the vertical garden accessible by the elevators from the lobby. The tower materializes an iconic representation of the Holly Qu'ran sacred writing. We hold this evolution into a stylized architectural pattern as a way of emphasizing on the Islamic ornamentation in terms of both visual and spiritual symbolism. Initially, the model of the tower was based on Kufic image script. As the project took shape on paper, the model evolved into a Cursive script form of representation, which combines the decorative vegetation and geometric interlacing. In our view, the mathematically sophisticated patterns applied on the tower reflect the spiritual life of Islam. The geometric model starts from the base of the tower from sand and becomes more complex as we climb towards the sky. The rarefaction of the structure model on the top of the tower suggests the transparency of spiritual enhancement. We are searching for an architectural notion of Islamic design that accentuates not only traditional elements of cultural persuasion, but also emphasizes on the spiritual aspirations that gives meaning and endurance to such a construction. Simply put, by erecting a sign, we materialize a symbol. It is the reason why every day the tower, powered by sunlight, writes words in the sand. The shadow of the markings, rooted in the Islamic pattern design proposed, are changing throughout the day, marking the continuous evolution of the great city of Dubai. Therefore, we consider that the proposed tower is also an iconic obelisk of light, a gigantic clockwork born from the sands of time and tradition, reinterpreting daily the meaning of constant urban evolution.

The Garden brings the notion of interior to a new level. It is not a simple meeting or walking space, but also the attempt to recreate an oasis in the middle of the desert, while talking advantage of the cutting-edge technologies of the present. If there is a connection between this element of our project and the ancient lush Hanging Gardens of the Semiramis, that link is to be found in the fact that rest and comfort are, in essence, timeless. And since beauty is timeless as well, we chose to imagine the Garden of Eden and to propose the vertical garden in the back of the skin-green building. [...]

GAV1

GABROVENI INN COMPETITION

BUCURESTI, 2009

UP08

CONCURS URBAN PASSAGE, 2008

As The city is known for the high-visibility events, we've imagine a 'time eating dragon' (similar to the ones sung in the stories of the medieval period), a temporary theatrical presences in the main square. Out intervention consists in an organically shaped passage, specific to the requirements of the medieval urban movement. The visual objective is to temporarily landmark the site. Inside, the tunnel transfigures into a temporal passageway. Past, present and iconic images are projected on the walls, creating a time tunnel, a passageway to a fantastic dimension. The chameleonic shape borrows the colors and nuances from the fragmented frontages, coming together in a 'blended skin', similar to theatrical representations of dragons. In interior, the tunnel is transformed in a temporal passage. The walls are filters and projection panels. The interest is focus on distanced fronts fragments, translated closer by mirrors, and projected for better observation.

JH1

JOHANNES HONTERUSCOURTYARD REHABILITATION AND LANDSCAPING COMPETITION

BRAȘOV, 2011

The courtyard of the Black Church of Brașov, located at the confluence of the roads that crossed the city in medieval times, has undergone successive transformations over time. Strongly marked by the roads that have crossed it, by the tracks of carts, people's footsteps, street markets and Sunday fairs, the square is shrinking due to the successive additions of buildings that currently border it. The fabric thus structured determined the character of the square, transforming it into a courtyard attached to the religious building. Similar to Tim Burton's characters, the solution proposed for the urban slab reinstates the body aged by time: the surface of the cobblestone preserves the heroic traces of resistance, describing the architecture in terms of dematerialization and heroic rematerialization. In contrast to the contemporary surfaces, the proposal interprets the collage as a formal mechanism of historical expression - the cobblestones are sewn, patched, re-expressing the old parcels, preserving the traces of the carts, describing the centrifugal movement around the church. The specificity of the site remains a memory of different materials, of distinct textures juxtaposed, in an expression of ancient craftsmanship, of the multiple facets of the limestone.

The proposed solution conceptualizes the roads traveled over time and the courtyard perceived as an enclosure and not just as a simple transit area. The "patching" with surfaces differentiated by texture, color and direction, reproduce the symbolic aspect of the beaten, patched, worn unevenly over time. The material transposition of the immaterial traces of the courtyard surface brings the space determined by them to human scale.

The relation of the textures to the buildings bordering the square is constituted as an allocation of fragments with differentiated memories. The courtyard of the church also becomes the courtyard of the houses that perimeter it. The houses put their imprint on the site and their boundaries expand. The patchwork, a translation of the existing plot, reduces the frontages, geometrically configuring the courtyard in relation to the front of the church, establishing a special relationship with each of the houses. Thus, the perimeter static areas are determined locally by dynamic surface texturing. The proposed areas, corresponding to each front, are reallocated to a segment of the church facade ("areas facing the saints'": the houses face the church, the saints face the people).

The medieval geometry of the courtyard has led to the resolution of the two lateral access areas (towards the Council Square and the "Johannes Honterus" High School) as "urban trumpets" marked by pavement boundaries. Their reconfiguration led to the re-centering of the center of gravity through the insertion of the two punctual elements: the tree and the Black Church area model. The space of inflection in the area of the high school was re-centered by the insertion of a group of three lime trees. The perspectives created are focused in the horizontal register and open in a typically medieval manner (dynamic ascending perspective, increasing the tension in the area of access to the churchyard).

OZ.23

CONCERT HALL

PLOIEȘTI, 2012

General data:

Site intervention: 72.000 square meters

Maximum capacity: 18.000 seats

CONCERTS

Area: 33.800 sq.m (concert hall, theater and annexes)

Capacity:

9,500 seats (6,200 bleacher area + 3,300 central area)

SUMMER THEATRE

Area: 5,250 square meters (open-air amphitheater)

Seating capacity: 8,000 (5,300 seats in the tiered seating area + 2,700 in the central area)

Metamorphosis, translated into the capacity of spatial re-organization according to the event, is the distinctive element of this project. The typology of spatial and functional organization aims at increased flexibility at the level of the interior space, generating varied ways of volumetric conformity. The diversified variants of coupling, horizontally and/or vertically, are transposed by: 1. the possibility of extending the space for performances by coupling the two central stages; 2. the possibility of extending the central space by (re)assembling the central stages, completing the bleachers in order to support activities for performances or sports competitions (the capacity extension in this variant through the functional reorganization of the bleachers and the central space determines a number of approx. 18,000 spectators); 3. extension of the space for performances or other activities in the foyer area, with extension into the outside space on the sloping ramp through which access to the central objective is achieved; 4. functional and formal reorganization of the concert hall for related activities with various degrees of occupancy, etc.