Growing architectures

A Squared

A Squared is a young architectural office, whose initiators - Andrei Cîrstian and Ioan-Andrei Egli - have more than 15 years of experience in the fields of architecture and interior design. Although an important direction in the office's design activity is medical, we are looking for diversification in terms of architectural programs and, implicitly, the scale of projects. We are concerned with both punctual, micro-scale interventions and large-scale projects that propose spatial solutions to highly complex problems. A Squared's projects include radiotherapy clinics in the Amethyst chain, aesthetic surgery clinics, individual housing, residential, commercial, office, residential, etc.

AmethystRadiotherapy Clinic Otopeni

The first of a number of medical projects by A Squared office, the Amethyst Otopeni clinic is a real flagship for the new chain of radiotherapy clinics. Medical architecture in Romania is in a pioneering phase, dictated by the evolution of a market that is still in full development. The Amethyst Otopeni clinic project started from moderate spatial constraints, being developed within the confines of a free lot, with no immediate neighbors. The radiotherapy clinic program, however, involves numerous functional and technical problems. Integrating such a program into a coherent and hospitable spatial ensemble for patients and physicians was a particular challenge. We sought to approach the standards of the hotel industry, using colors, materials and textures that would contribute to an overall sense of well-being for the users of the clinic spaces. The Amethyst Otopeni Clinic was a pioneering project for our office as well, paving the way to a new architectural field with deeply specific laws and rules.

Zetta Clinic

A cosmetic surgery clinic is a space of personal transformation. A cocoon-space, protected from the outside environment, a self-oriented space. Zetta Clinic gave us the opportunity to locate such a function in a dense residential area in an existing office building. Catering to a high-end clientele, the clinic had to comply with special image and brand positioning requirements. Spaces are threaded from the spaceship-like reception, awash in white, to the doctors' offices, patient stock rooms and finally the operating room, the latter gradually colored. Natural light is filtered through translucent glazing, acting as a temporal landmark for both doctors and patients. The designed furniture is an integral part of the proposed solution, participating in the shaping of the space, and the surfaces treated with white thermoformed composite alternate with surfaces finished with textured wallpaper or screen-printed colored glass.

TER or heritage restoration - Bucharest railways

TER - Regional Express Train. An ambitious project, based on a disconcertingly simple idea: utilizing the potential offered by Bucharest's railways intra muros. A disconcertingly simple idea, we say, because the TER never set out to invent some revolutionary means of transportation, some suspended fantasy or some new way to clear the legal jungle of expropriations in the national interest. From the outset, the project has sought to promote the enormous mobility potential of these urban railways - some fully functional, others in need of extensive repair or extension - on the model of a whole host of European cities and beyond. The TER began in 2007, when two architecture graduates discovered some 60 kilometers of railway track in Bucharest that was only partially used for passenger trains bound for destinations outside the city or for freight trains. In the context of the economic boom of 2005-2008, which brought with it a paroxysmal worsening of road traffic conditions in Bucharest, TER was a natural solution to cover some structural gaps in the city's transportation network. The first public appearance of the project took place at the 2007 Architecture Annual, immediately followed by an exhibition at the Street Delivery event in the same year. Since 2009, TER has been featured frequently in print, online, TV and radio, with media interest in the project coming as an unexpected surprise to the authors. The TER was also presented to a certain Minister of Transport at the time, a presentation that unfortunately did not resonate.

The TER concept seeks to close a bad historical loop. The history of Bucharest's railways is an exemplary one, which must be read in the context of 19th century Europe, a Europe to whose standards the late Romanian countries fervently sought to align themselves. In Bucharest, as in Paris, London and Budapest, economic development became closely linked to the expansion of the rail network. Independent Romania was able to build railways at a pace that would seem dizzying today, so much so that in 1899 the French MP Pelleton, in the plenary session of the Assemblée Nationale, cited Romania as "one of the most advanced countries in Europe" in terms of ^railways1. The capital was served by a number of stations, only some of which still exist today. Thus, the center of Bucharest was surrounded by a real railway belt linking Filaret Railway Station, the first railway station in the Romanian Lands, with Cotroceni Royal Railway Station (now transformed into an access to Cotroceni Palace), North Railway Station, with a branch to Cotroceni Railway Station and the city's railway belt. Further on, North Station was directly linked to Obor Station via Herăstrău Station (now defunct, located on the current Barbu Văcărescu Boulevard), the line then continued to Cățelu Station, still in operation today, and further on to ^Oltenița2. The accelerated industrialization induced by the communist regime meant the transformation of some passenger lines into lines serving the newly opened large industrial platforms, so that most of the old stations in Bucharest were disused or demolished. Filaret station, inaugurated in 1869 and built according to a British design, was converted into a bus station in ¹⁹⁶⁰.3 Cotroceni Royal Station was converted into a confectioner's, then an access point to the Cotroceni Palace. The Herăstrău station was completely demolished, as was the line linking it to Obor station.

Bucharest's railway network played the role of a real ordering system of the urban fabric, as it did in most European cities in the 19th century. By enabling the easy transportation of travelers, goods of all kinds and military equipment, these lines generated economic growth and the development of commercial and industrial areas along their route, while at the same time becoming a natural presence in the city. The decommissioning of some of them in the post-war period created interstitial spaces, real boundaries where the city turns its back on itself. As a side-effect, the new high-rise neighborhoods built since the 1960s have taken these interstices as natural boundaries, unused urban spaces unable to be coherently integrated into the fabric of the new developments. Thus, the remaining lines of the old Bucharest railway network have taken on the role of boundaries between the new neighborhoods - examples are the Cățelu Station line, which separates the Pantelimon and Balta Albă neighborhoods, the old Cotroceni Station line, which separates Drumul Taberei from the Militari neighborhood, or the Filaret Station line, which separates the Ferentari and Giurgiului neighborhoods. From the very beginning, one of the TER project's stakes was precisely the recovery of these interstitial spaces. The revitalized TER lines can generate the emergence of annexed functions that take over the current lawns of the disused lines. In this way, the boundary becomes an artery of the city, the slum a green space, and the deserted canton kiosks - stations and commercial spaces. Gone are the days of soot-spitting trains, rattling on the tracks and hissing with aplomb as they rush through the city. The modern urban train involves low noise and pollution, relatively high traffic frequency and a large number of stations, some of them intermodal. Thus, the city's presence is beneficial, with a cohesive effect on its fractured fabric. Certain disadvantaged neighborhoods and areas bordering TER lines could benefit from the transformation of the TER lines from spaces cut off from the city into mobility axes. Directly linked to the central areas, these neighborhoods would soon become much more accessible, more desirable, and would naturally participate in the pulsations of the city. Real estate values would increase, commercial functions could take over many of the local needs, and safety could be enhanced as they would be mapped and become part of a constant rhythm of use. In addition, the urban rail network is a layer of separate circulations with few points of intersection with the road system. The perception of the city would benefit from the uninterrupted mobility of such a network, a perceptual dimension that is almost completely missing today. The exchange becomes reciprocal: the city offers itself as a view, and its rail arteries offer themselves as spaces for exchange and mobility.

The railroad is a cultural heritage of Bucharest, and perhaps one of the first symptoms of the young Romanian state's alignment with the more developed Western nations. Rediscovering the potential of Bucharest's railway lines would be a natural return to the logic of a development process that began in 1869 with the opening of Filaret Station, and one of the opportunities to renew that unfortunate historical loop during which the city was subjected to traumatic urban transformation processes. Modern Bucharest is closely linked to the railroad, and the process of abandoning it in favor of the road network has proved counterproductive. TER advocates precisely for the recovery of this heritage with a potentially complex role in the city. Beyond the historical dimension, we do not think we need to mention the low environmental impact of rail transport or its competitive costs. It is precisely for these reasons that rail is more relevant than ever.