Virginia Haret. Who has something to say?

text: Henrieta Delavrancea-Gibory
photo: Daniela Maria Puia

Photo-Virginia Haret (Andreescu)

And here we are before the world's first woman architect, Virginia Andreescu, married Haret, who entered the art of building through the "big door" in 1919. The granddaughter of the painter Ioan Andreescu could just as well have dedicated herself to painting or sculpture if she had not had in her a strong desire to conquer space, which gives the architect great satisfaction, unimagined by those outside the profession.
Since her high school exams, she has marked her personality, and at the Higher School of Architecture, although she did not follow the advice of her studio teacher, architect Burcuș, closely, when she did not like it, her projects were regularly awarded by the Faculty Council with a first mention. It is true that before her, Ada Zăgănescu had faced the harsh professor Ion Mincu, the initiator of the notion of Romanian architecture, but she, caught up in the whirlwind of life and lack of potential, could not realize her dream.
After graduating, Virginia spent two more years in Italy, working with renowned masters.
Returning to the country in 1922, she was eager to pursue her profession with sure conviction and made her debut at the School House, where she remained faithful to her profession for 25 years.
She takes over the projects in operation, then composes her own, which become the "model project" for the whole country, from the smallest schools to the most complex high schools. She is the right hand of chief architect I. Pompilian.
Her architecture is developed in the spirit of the times, following the path set out by architect Mincu and, after him, by architect Petre Antonescu, closer to the character of our ancient monuments. Then he personally documents himself, collaborating with the Historical Monuments group, making a serious contribution with surveys, sketches and reconstructions. In particular, he gets close to the architect Ghica-Budești and collaborates with him on the treatise on Romanian art in Muntenia and Oltenia and on the works of Moldavian architecture, which is reflected in the realization of the "Cantemir" Lyceum and others.

Villa Dr. Nicolae Gh. Lupu. Detail

The games of life and the unexpected in the course of her professional life were to find in her collaboration with the engineer Spiru Haret, vice-president of the Edilitatea Society, a deep understanding and friendship which resulted in marriage and the birth of a son, Radu, today an engineer and professor. Her collaboration with her husband spilled over into her whole life, helping her to carry out her impulsive, multifaceted, almost unbelievable work. What has characterized Virginia has been her wisdom, from the very beginning of her career she has known how to associate herself with experienced and experienced colleagues. Thus, in her first year of activity, 1922, with Soc. Construcția Modernă, a ridicat blocul Cantacuzino pe Calea Victoriei colț cu strada Frumoasă, pe terenul moștenitorilor Nababului, cu 6 caturi.
With the architect Pompilian, the Tinerimea Română block, even taller. Then, also with him, the building of the Municipal Society of Eftine Housing in Rosetti Square on the corner of Hristo Botev Street, 9 masts, in 1926, whose strong and imposing cornice was admired by her former teacher, the architect Constantin Iotzu. She also collaborated with Simotta, Doneaud and others. Her strong potential threw her into life with even more authority and confidence, and she realized a whole series of single-family dwellings in the capital and in the provinces, clubs, various programs, where she sought to imprint the influences of ancestral architecture, personally studied "in situ" in the country. And, by winning public competitions, he builds a housing estate in Bucharest and other works for which he won first prizes.
New times are knocking. Virginia follows the revolution in architecture with discretion and restraint, and here she is designing the building at 14 Lascăr Catargiu Boulevard, with several apartments, their own home where they will live for 30 years. She knows how to remain tactfully within that artery. Its horizontals are weighted, its spaces quiet, exuding the pulsation of a welcoming, reclusive life. From now on, what he conceives will be in the same spirit and represent the new character of the architecture to which he is fixating. He does not fall into the inhuman expressions of Le Corbusier, like a Marcel Iancu, without mentioning others, so as not to compromise them, who later return to the old roots, the ones that some of them had never left.

Palace of the "Romanian Youth Society"

Her activity is astonishing, for, in addition to the 150 buildings she designed and executed, she contributed to architectural and engineering journals, was a member of teaching councils, was active in the two architectural societies and that of the Polytechnic, in Urbanism, was a teacher, was in contact with architects in the USSR, was appreciated and, if she was invited, went to Moscow, did translations and much more... not to mention the study trips or delegations during which she studied world architecture in the field.
The valuable Monograph of the National Theater remains from her complex work. The technique of the study is detailed, clear and organized, the documentation abundant in scripts, drawings and annotated photographs. The work must be put in print and easily completed at the end by the architects who were eyewitnesses to the disaster and are still alive today.

Villa ing. I. Catuniari, 1920, 30 Washington St., Bucharest

The electrical potential of its work is exhausted after 40 years of feverish activity. Fate crushes her drive for beauty: "On a sunny spring day in 1962, Virginia Andreescu Haret dies. Her talent and hard work remain an example of a life dedicated to art in the high profession of architecture".
Diploma Project - School of Fine Arts, defended on July 6/13, 1919 and awarded with the Ministry of Education and Teaching Prize
Virginia and Spiru Haret family residence, Bd. Lascăr Catargiu 14, 1931
Haret family villa in Sinaia, 1937
Residence of Eng. Spiru Haret, Intr. Spătarului 8, 1926
The presentation by the architect Henrieta Delavrancea-Gibory was given at the Communication Session of the Academy of the R.S.S.R. on May 5-7, 1976. The text written by Henrieta Delavrancea is preserved in manuscript at the Romanian Academy Library, Manuscripts Section, Radu Haret Archive.

Published in Arhitectura 2/2013
http://arhitectura-1906.ro/2013/06/virginia-haret-cine-are-ceva-de-spus/

SUMMARY OF ARHITECTURA, NR 2-3/2017
Women in Romanian Architecture