Argument

I address myself for the first time to the readers of the magazine "Arhitectura", as the new editor-in-chief, with a feeling shared between a respectful memory of the string of architects who have led this veritable "monument" of publicity - next year it will be 110 years old -, among whom I cannot fail to mention my former professor of architectural theory, dr. arh. Mircea Lupu, and the friendly curiosity towards those who today, in a dangerous intersection of information, digital socialization and hardened profession, buy and read the magazine, as did my class of 1981.

I don't want to write now about responsibility, sometimes burdensome - it exists even as we jubilate the magazine's exit from the printers; about marketing techniques we won't write, we will apply them, sometimes appealing to readers. But I do want to share the pleasure of doing an architecture magazine as a team, of launching new themes for analysis, reflection and debate, todo modo (joking allusion to a not very funny book and movie title...). It is an invigorating, comforting feeling that inundates us discontinuously and discreetly, which we imagine fulfilled symmetrically in the reader, through the promises of a product wrapped in transparent foil, revealed only by the cover that "sells" it, the feverishness of browsing the contents, reading with "razor-sharp" interest the texts, leafing through pages of plans, sections and photographs, the smell of fresh ink...

I'm not going to make a habit of editorializing in magazines. The present argument is an exception justified by the first address to the readers, at the beginning of the mission and of the year. I proposed the theme of the issue 1/ 2015, Atelier versus Site, giving a concrete formulation to some preoccupying thoughts and interests in the last 8-9 years, after an unexpected re-encounter with architecture... The investigation of the subject entails two major directions in professional life, the first being practiced since architectural school, the second, however, only discovered in the often harsh reality of the profession, always different from project to project, client to client, builder to builder, why not, however... The editorial staff has invited architects with the most diverse profiles, ages and experience to write on this subject, architects who have designed buildings with different architectural programs. To the extent that the architects have expressed their openness to self-reflexivity, we believe that the multiplicity of points of view and experiences of balancing the project against on-site execution has been achieved. Difficult projects are presented, involving many hours of study, documentation, technical design, dialog with the client and specialists and many hours of site supervision, marked by the "adrenaline" of tensions produced by the difference of vision, interests, and the need to keep within the estimated timetable and budget - the articles by Georgetei Gabrea and Costel Tudoruț. There are experiments where the "building site" is the community or communities with and for which the architect proposes common landmarks, only apparently more comfortable, such as the one recounted by young architects from Cluj in Urban Food Stories. Or others, such as the projects presented by AbruptArhitectura, where the construction site is the virtual depository of projections of how the project will be built... Or in Angelo Rovența's case of the architectural prototype studied, calculated and modulated in order to be placed on the construction market as a finished product which, through assembly and replication, develops housing or accommodation units with an urban identity.

I hoped that an interview with Șerban Sturdza would open the door to the "laboratory" of an architect known for his very particular approaches to the commissioning of houses, that it would bring us closer to a genuine "metaphysics" of the building site that nourishes an inceptum apertum.

Anca Sandu Tomașevschi's essay on Marcel Iancu seems to complete, in the memorialistic register, the prolific and interdisciplinary dimension of the architect's work, in the case of the famous avant-garde architect, the "well-tempered dissipation" in multiple areas of creativity.

Atelier versus Site cannot only spark debates about attitude, reflection, self-positioning and cultural patterns. Beyond all this, the economics of architecture and the design market are drastically imposing themselves and may change the perception of the balance between the conception/design phase and the on-site execution follow-up phase. In 2010, the Romanian Order of Architects initiated a sociological analysis on the architectural ^profession1, carried out in cooperation with the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work of the "Babeș-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca. In the chapter "Occupations and professional practices", interesting, measured and partly interpreted data on the architect's perception or self-perception - professional success or failure, the defining elements of successful projects, the scope of the professional portfolio and the assignments undertaken, the relations with the administration, clients or specialists, participation in competitions, etc., appear. Many criteria are determined by the way in which the architectural project is conducted, from the initiation of the idea and design theme, to the submission of the execution details or plotting on site, as well as the follow-up of the project execution - lack of control over the execution and completion of the architectural objectives, design changes made assumed or imposed on site, to the final acceptance. Even more important in the economic strategy of the profession is the role of the architect in the investment in construction and landscaping. A sub-chapter also deals with the dynamics of the profession and architectural activities at that time, more specifically how the profession was changing "under the influence of macro-social economic, political and cultural factors"^2. Since then, thanks to recurrent research carried out by the European Council of Architects among architects in the EU Member States through their national organizations, information on the market for architectural services and professional dynamics is constantly updated.

Sociologists have included in the questionnaire the question: "Have any design projects or products produced by your firm appeared in a specialized publication?"^3. Pro domo plea: I hope that the magazine "Arhitectura" preserves its standing and the merit of contributing to the professional recognition of architects, but also to the affirmation of the opportunities of younger colleagues in the profession.

NOTES: 1 Architect in Romania. Studiu de fundamentare a politicilor naționale pentru arhitectură, Dan Chiribucă, Șerban Țigănaș (coord.), Călin Moldovan-Teselios, Rudolf Poledna, Norbert Petrovici, Coca Vieru, Camil Postelnicu, Alina Bîrsan, Cluj-Napoca: Eikon, 2010. 2 idem, p. 124. 3 idem, p. 116.