Diploma project: Romanian Consulate in Barcelona

stud.-arh. Ana Maria Oțelea

University of Architecture and Urbanism "Ion Mincu", Bucharest

Guiding diploma projects in Architecture is a fascinating process. The best students try, at the end of their studies, to be free and surprising - sometimes mature, often sincere. Ana Maria Oțelea "promised" early on (fourth year) that architecture would be a passion, a perpetual challenge and a beautiful struggle with herself.

A simple and quite pragmatic, even technical, theme, the seat of the Romanian Consulate in Barcelona, and a fairly tight location in an old urban fabric, led through hard work, talent and passion to a winning work.

The very tight rules of the site, the sequences of full and empty in the chosen urban fabric have determined an extremely intelligent approach, in which the new proposal, although very complex in terms of spatiality, is subtly and subtly inscribed in the spatial completion of the volumetry of the city. The succession of volumes, of courtyards at different levels, the natural rhythm generated by the context, of full and empty at the level of the urban spatial configuration are part of the picturesque and specificity of the city. The subtly controlled spectacle of the volumes, inscribed in a natural aesthetic, is strongly supported by the play of planes at different levels, with spectacular spaces, with interesting vertical and horizontal superimpositions and relationships, both vertically and horizontally, judiciously organized, alternating between sculpturality and intimacy. The success of the spatial design is all the more evident because the whole is on an accessible scale, with most of the functional spaces being of a size comparable to a dwelling.

The project is, above all, cleverly managed, down to the detail, in relation to the area and space. Last but not least, the proposed materials - with a dominance of the traditional mineral, in which, as a novelty, Ana proposes a continuity of this wall-covering, mostly ceramic. The volume with very small voids, rigorously studied in terms of proportion and vitricity, adds additional qualities to this project, all together leading to a success, a true aesthetic essay, coherent, a "promise" fulfilled.

Supervisor: prof. dr. dr. arh. Dan Șerban