Thematic file

“Horia Creangă Moment” within the Rolling Mill Complex in Bucharest. Explanatory Report

"Horia Creangă Moment,
in the Laminorul Bucharest complex.

Explanatory memorandum

text: Niels AUNER

caption><img src= I believe that, as the restoring architects of the Laminor Hall, we owe Horia Creangă a gesture of honor, a dedicated moment.
I am thinking that Horia Creangă is not only the first of the grandchildren of the storyteller Ion Creangă who enjoyed our childhood, he is also the first who established a new direction in modern architecture in these lands.
The Laminor Hall that we are dealing with is just one of the many works by Creangă and by the valuable architects of his contemporaries; it is important that all citizens who will use this restored and refunctionalized building are introduced to the world of this truly modern architecture.
It is also a good opportunity to present that exceptional period in the history of architecture with the whole landscape of contemporaneity of that time, but especially with what the architects of H. Creangă's generation brought new.
This is why I think that the creation of a dedicated area on the entrance route to the huge complex would be very welcome; more than just photographs, it could also present models of the representative buildings designed by Creangă, but above all construction details that have radically changed contemporary architecture through their simplicity, robustness and constructive spirit.
Some of these details, such as constructional nodes that bring together for the first time different, apparently incompatible materials into a single whole, should be presented in full. It would even be necessary to present them in section, explaining the whole mechanism for joining these materials together, a joining used less frequently in the architecture of the time.
Many of these details are not visible from ground level, given the very great height at which these sub-assemblies are located: ceilings, skylights, natural ventilation systems, etc.
It is important to add that, in the restoration process, in addition to the need to preserve the line of the author's original conception, there is also the need to use the latest technologies to ensure the comfort of the interior climate necessary for a social and cultural program that is totally different from the original industrial one.
We are therefore faced with the need to replace some of the original details, perfectly valid for an industrial hall, but inconceivable for a socio-cultural functional space: for example, replacing the non-thermally insulated sheeting of the original cladding with panels of thermally insulated sheeting; replacing the single-glazed skylights with thermopane-type skylights made of tempered glass, etc.
For the overall economics of the project, the vastness of the problem of transforming an industrial space into a socio-cultural one, the need for controlled phasing of the works, lead us to a solution that mediates between the original detail and that resulting from the conditions of current technology.
I am thinking of the MOMENTUL CREANGĂ set up near the entrance to the Laminor Hall as a space of approx. 100 square meters, realized in a containerized system, in which the elements of detail of the original structure, as they were designed and executed, will be exhibited, scale 1:1, with sections through the system, with the presentation of the whole system of the composition of the nodes.
Fully equipped containers could be used according to the designer's wishes; they have the advantages of modularity, mobility and flexible layout, depending on the evolution of the useful space of the interior design and general refunctionalization project.
I am aware that the difficult period that the phenomenon of monument restoration is going through needs a greater involvement in increasing the professional, but especially the organizational and technological capacity of restoration companies, as the accentuated specialization on specific areas cannot be achieved without the total involvement, especially of those who we consider ourselves to be the still living "pioneers" of this field.