Photoexhibition and contest Octavian Radu Topai

Between 19 October and 11 December, the Timiș Territorial Branch of the Romanian Order of Architects (OAR) organized a national architectural photography competition addressed to all members of the branches of the Romanian Order of Architects. The idea of an architectural photography competition arose as a result of the commemoration of one year since the tragic and untimely death of the architect and photographer Octavian Radu Topai.

"The 2015 Octavian Radu Topai Architectural Photography Exhibition-Contest" is a cultural project funded by the architectural stamp tax, which aimed to exhibit photographs taken by Octavian Radu Topai in a form that highlights his personality and his research as an architect and photographer, as well as to exhibit the photographs entered in the competition, with the desire to create an event with an annual tradition and to establish the "Octavian Radu Topai Architectural Photography Award".

Octavian Radu Topai was passionate about architecture, photography, traveling, mountaineering and caving, being "one of the brightest personalities of the young generation of architects who graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Timișoara", says Vlad Gaivoronschi, President of the Timiș Branch of the OAR.

In 1997, when he was admitted to the faculty, he became a member of the Romanian Alpine Club, and three years later he started collaborating with the magazine "De Arhitectură" as a photographer and picture editor. In 2003 he graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Timisoara, and in 2004 he received his master's degree after attending the "Restructuring of Historic Buildings and Environments" course at the same faculty. In the same year he founded the design firm Arhland, where he has been project manager since 2009.

Tavi Topai, as his friends used to call him, was a founding member of several associations for the protection of the natural environment and participated in numerous greening actions. He has undertaken numerous expeditions and/or photographic trips to countries such as Russia, Spain, Austria, Germany, Greece, Georgia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Austria, Germany, Georgia, Italy, New Zealand and Argentina and has won prizes in various competitions.

His works, carefully thought out down to the smallest detail, betray a huge passion for the classical image, for the vast yet ethereal landscape, and the mountain with its ridges and dramatic atmosphere given by the perpetual struggle between clouds, rock and light is always used to express his vision of eternity and the purity of remoteness.

As photographer Dinu Lazăr says, Tavi's images are "sensitive and sublime, show a never-ending quest, demonstrate an incredible inner energy and are realized with great technical mastery".

At the same time they are much more than what he saw and felt, they are a philosophy about solitude, purity, a search for deeper meanings, unanswered questions or the soul, as he himself said.

In the first edition, the competition had six sections and prizes were awarded to the best photographs of each section. For 2016, the exhibition-competition aims to include student architects among those eligible to participate. The magazine "Arhitectura" awarded a special prize to one of the photographs entered in the competition, bearing the jury's pre-selection stamp.

Until then, we invite you to view the photos entered in the first edition of the competition, as well as a selection of architect Octavian Radu Topai's photographs on the website: premiuloctaviantopai.ro.