UNULAUNU

Background

UNULAUNU is Romina Grillo, Ciprian Rășoiu, Liviu Vasiu, Matei Vlăsceanu and Tudor Vlăsceanu. We first joined forces in 2010, driven by the simple desire to do architecture, and later found enough points, both common and conflicting, to convince us to work together and form a team. In addition to our personal projects, we enriched our experience by working in offices such as OMA / Rem Koolhaas - Rotterdam / Hong Kong, Christian Kerez - Zürich and Valerio Olgiati - Chur, living and collaborating with offices in Paris, Dubai, Zürich, Oslo, Berlin, Brussels and Stuttgart. Our first project was the competition and construction of the Romanian national pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010. Our success at the prestigious event and fruitful collaboration created the opportunity for us to establish an architectural office.

Present

At present, we have branched out into the academic sphere - ETH Zürich, UAUIM Bucharest. We believe that a complete training involves an exercise of crystallizing, filtering and emitting the acquired information and knowledge. Through the school we allow ourselves to create themes of thought and debate and to keep ourselves constantly active in this field, with the hope and intention that from this agglomeration of thoughts and ideas, projects that go beyond the everyday sphere will result. At the same time the projects also extend into the sphere of communicating our ideas through exhibitions and conferences: Stuttgart, Florence, Timisoara, Weimar. Thus our collective efforts focus on creating the complete architect.

Concerns

The typology of architectural office that UNULAUNU has approached is based on an unusual set of premises without a precise, methodological, conventional structure. This decision stems more from an ambition to produce architecture than from a desire for profitability. So we are at a critical point which, through a change of orientation, we have turned into an advantage - the almost undifferentiated structure of the office is a machine for rigorous critique and self-verification. We can almost say that we are on the lookout for conflictual situations that require resolution, require answers, require research and creativity. UNULAUNU is the permanent project, under whose order we create architecture.

Root

scenography for "Elektra", during the festival "Une nuit sans opera" Aix-en-Provence, France

In developing a scenography for the opera "Elektra" by Richard Strauss at the "Une Nuit Sans Opera" festival, our interest was to coagulate all the generative elements of the performance: actors, spectators, the opera space and the spectators' space. Therefore, the challenge for us was to reinterpret the spatial values of scenography in relation to the spectators. Root was imagined starting from a fractal element generating space. A single gesture embraces both the stage and the opera's space as well as the spectators. By experiencing the authentic space of the stage, spectators can experience new emotional levels and new levels of understanding of the opera. Changing the paradigm of the spectator audience into an integrated element of the opera is intended to create a common space between the elements involved, leaving the park untouched. Nature in this case becomes part of the opera.

House with outdoorroom

Țigănești, Romania

Due to its position, at the end of a country road and at the beginning of a dense forest, the house uses this context to create an intimate and private environment. The geometry of the house was determined by following a very clear programmatic idea and the site's neighborhoods. All of this together with the desire for isolation from the outside creates a courtyard that is positioned between the house and the street. The courtyard assumes the role of a transitional space between public and private space. At the same time this courtyard space becomes an open room of the house, functioning as a multi-functional room, a playroom, a dining area or even a movie theater. The house is built between two opposing situations: on the one hand a private, protected and abstract area, and on the other a raw, uncontrolled world of the forest. To emphasize once again the dominant character of the living room, this space is the highest and is the only one that opens onto both situations.

Embassy Kuwait

Bucharest, Romania

Designing an embassy today is a difficult task. According to the historian Jane C. Loeffler this task is a balancing act between fulfilling pragmatic and demanding requirements and setting a general tone for a future relationship, a relationship of exchange, between two different nations, different cultures. On the one hand, safety and extreme privacy play a crucial role for the proper functioning of such a building, and on the other hand architecture is meant to communicate the values of a culture, of an ideology, thus taking a position towards the general public. One could say that a building of this kind will thrive when it becomes a hub, a meeting place, always open and flexible, which will stand the test of time by functioning with scientific precision in a controlled environment. The clash of these opposing forces can only be resolved by architecture that must elegantly transcend this level of understanding, thus mirroring the true values of a nation.