Promises

Restoration and refunctionalization of the building on Avram Iancu Street, 7, Sibiu

Promises

Diploma Project
Faculty of Architecture UAUIM,
specialization Conservation - Restoration of Architecture, Sibiu

RESTORATION AND REFUNCTIONALIZATION OF THE BUILDING ON 7 AVRAM IANCU STREET, SIBIU

text: Nicholas CANTONI

The project for the bachelor's degree in the specialization of Conservation - Restoration of Architecture Sibiu, within the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Architecture and Urbanism "Ion Mincu" of Bucharest, class of 2016, aimed at research (preparation of the historical study/foundation of interventions), analysis (preparation of the survey, urban study of the study area and detection of degradations) and realization of the restoration and refunctionalization project of the building on Avram Iancu Street, no. 7, located in the historical center of the city.
The diploma project was carried out in three main stages:
Urban planning research of the study area and the preparation by the third year collective, class of 2016, of the updated survey and the mapping of the existing degradations and problems of the building;
Drawing up of the Study of the intervention rationale for the aforementioned building including all the historical-architectural documentation concerning the building;
The viable proposal of a project scenario for the restoration and architectural conservation of the building as well as the refunctionalization project (if necessary, including the design of an extension for the building proposed for research).
The first phase involved the preparation of an updated survey with the highest possible degree of accuracy, using triangulation and reference points/sources. Due to the particular location of the building - two sloping inner courtyards + a courtyard communicating with the buildings and the ruins of the plots of the Small Square - the measurement was problematic but fruitful. The teamwork resulted in an accurate survey, which was an extremely important object of study for further research. Also, the mapping of the degradations, architectural values, harmful elements and the mapping of the construction phasing carried out, in the first part of the second phase, on the updated survey allowed to deepen the historical-architectural-memorialistic research of the building included in the thick Study of the foundation of the interventions.

In this study we have presented the building from the historical-architectural point of view, from the perspectives of its evolution over time and the construction phasing, but also from the point of view of the current structure of the building bodies, as well as the setting in the city and the memorial value that the building has acquired in its estimated 600 years of existence.
The building studied within the study area is the building located at Avram Iancu Street, no. 7, Sibiu. The building is located in the central area of Sibiu and is classified as a historical monument of national interest (category A-SB-II-m-A-12041).

The building consists of three sections bordering the inner courtyard and is composed of four building blocks erected successively and having construction characteristics specific to the period in which they were built.
- Building A, facing Avram Iancu Street, was built at the end of the 16th century and belongs to the late Gothic and Renaissance architectural styles; it is a building of exceptional architectural and historical value;
- Block B is located on the west and north side of the enclosure and is connected to Block A by a small linking building, built later, at the beginning of the 19th century; in general, this part of the building is built in the Baroque style (second half of the 18th century), but the basement rooms were built in the Gothic period (some of the walls of the house overlap parts of the second and third fortification walls of the medieval fortress); part of this building dates from the Gothic and Renaissance periods, while the defining modernization of this volume was carried out in the Baroque period;
- Building C occupies most of the eastern side of the enclosure, apart from the building which connects with Building B; unlike the other buildings, it did not develop spontaneously, but was designed by the architects Franz Szalogh and Josef Schermann in 1894 as a dwelling for the servants and tenants of the then owners' family - the Jickeli family, who lived in the building;
- Parasitic building D was built in 1974 and is an extension of an apartment of building B, built with the idea of increasing the living area; this parasitic building endangers the general image of the building and is not of particular value as an architectural or historical monument, which recommends it for removal.

><img src= As a result of the research, it was found that the building was constructed in 7 stages:
1. The construction in the 14th century of the fortification walls of the second enclosure of the city of Sibiu, which overlap with the western boundary of the studied plot. Also, the southern room of body B is considered to be the remains of an old fortification tower of the second enclosure of the medieval city.
2. The realization, on the plot under study, of the junction between the second and third fortification walls, which has an octagonal tower on the neighboring plot on the left.
Taking into account the typology of the occupation of the plot in the Gothic period, it is assumed that there were two initial nuclei built on the studied plot since the 15th century: the first nucleus oriented towards Avram Iancu Street, rectangular in shape, and the second nucleus with the facade oriented towards the side courtyard of the current plot. The orientation of the second nucleus is due to the fact that between the present houses no. 26 in the Small Square and house no. 7 on Avram Iancu street there was a passageway linking the Great Square with the Square of the Goldsmiths. What is left today of this passage is the courtyard apparently residual between the buildings in the Large Square and those on Avram Iancu Street. There is also the hypothesis that the highest room in the current basement could have been a tower of the second fortification wall of the enclosure. The Renaissance portal in the entrance gangway of the building also dates from this period.
3. Following the fire of 1570, the then owner of the building, the goldsmith Thomas Stihn (1589), rebuilt the house, presumably rebuilding the basement in part, on the same footprint as the old one, and adding the front rooms of the A-building on the ground floor. During this period, practically, the A and B buildings were welded onto the former fortification wall of the second enclosure. The preferred type of vaulting is that of the late Gothic or early Renaissance, i.e. cross vaults. Semi-cylindrical vaulted rooms are also possible.
4. In the 18th century, the fortification wall on the west side of the plot, the B-building, was supplemented with baroque baroque vaulted rooms. At the same time, the ground floor of the B-building is terraced with two further levels, all built in the Baroque architectural style of the time. The first floor of building A is linked to the second floor of building B by means of a corbel. The preferred vaults in this period are the vaults a vela - from the Italian vela - meaning sail (characteristic of the early and mature Baroque - B), as well as the vaulted and stuccoed spaces (A).
5. Between 1850-1894, the present-day railings of the corbel, of the staircase on the first floor and the degraded balustrade of the terrace of body B were built. During this period, the present-day space in which body C is located was used for stables and wood storehouses (see the 1875 Sibiu City Plan).
6. Between 1894-1919, building C is erected (attested in 1894 by the project drawn by the architect Josef Schermann).
7. Between 1950-2007, the socialist and post-decembrist period, the parasitic body D was built and the building was compartmentalized, inadequate due to the renting of the building.

><img src= The first historically attested owner of the building is believed to have been the goldsmith Thomas Stihn, whose initials are engraved on the Renaissance portal in the entrance gangway of the building. Other important owners of the building were: the mayor Tobbias Sifft, as well as the famous members of the Jickeli family who donated the house to the Evangelical Church of Sibiu at the end of the 19th century.
The oldest survey of the building was made in 1894 by the architect Josef Gurtner. In this survey, the architect tries to establish a periodization for the B-building and, at the same time, he also makes small changes and additions to the plan of the building. He is the first to recognize and support the architectural significance and value of the building for the period between the 14th and 20th centuries, by preserving the building in a harmonious unity (Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism, Eclecticism).

The refunctionalization and restoration project

Following the preparation of the intervention baseline study, which decides the limits of the subsequent restoration, the refunctionalization project followed. The concept behind the project was to transform the building into the headquarters of a fashion house in Sibiu, where the most important activities of selling and presenting clothing from Sibiu, as well as activities involving Design students from the "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu, were to be carried out.

><img src= The building functions as a cultural center of Romanian clothing art, linked to the tradition of the place (the Saxon world) and contemporary influences in fashion. It is therefore a place of creativity, with workshops for mannequins, designers, specialized staff, research students, as well as guests from abroad (with accommodation provided for guests and mannequins, designers and student designers who spend their internship here).
The refunctionalization project is underpinned by the restoration project, which involves restoring the building to its authentic historical image by: demolition of harmful architectural elements and spaces (body D, the console room between body A and B), return to the authentic facade by partially changing the joinery, reconstruction of some dormers removed in recent years and consolidation works on the rickety structure of the Renaissance roof, as well as the refurbishment of the authentic woodwork, the 19th century cast ironwork and the marking of the interventions, which must be reversible and respect the principles set out in the Venice International Charter for the Protection of the Built Heritage, drawn up in the 1960s. The project also proposes to detail the restored body C with extension with a new, neutral architecture, which will represent the management and administration part of the House of Fashion and Clothing. Also, the roofing will be repaired by replacing the broken floor tiles with other tiles belonging to old buildings that can no longer be saved. Restoration with new floor tiles is not recommended for aesthetic reasons and out of respect for the authentic material.
It is equally important to treat at the urban planning level (preserving the specific character of the plot and the image of the house with an inner courtyard typical of the urban patrician) and at the detail level (authentic finishes and, if it is impossible to recover the authentic material, the option of completing the ensemble with materials or architectural elements built in the same style and with the same materials - following the Italian or French restoration doctrine).
The diploma project has created an overview of what it means in principle to prepare (through analysis and study) a process of restoration and refunctionalization of a heritage building located in the heart of the medieval historical center of Sibiu, with Renaissance and Baroque contributions. The conversion and spatial-architectural reconversion of old buildings is a condition for their reintegration into the life of the city. We must be aware of their tourist, cultural and artistic potential, but also of the usefulness they could have by choosing an appropriate function, supported, of course, by the restoration and architectural conservation project.