Thematic dossier

About experiencing space

Thematic dossier

Prof. dr. arh.Cristina Olga Gociman Recommend
arh. Arpad NAGY

On experiencing space

caption><img src= The countryside. An authentic village in the Sequoia with a linear development, with narrow and deep adjoining plots.
His house. An authentic house, his grandfather's house, preserved for at least two generations, set back from the road and set on the side boundary with long frontage and access to the sun. A single window like an eye under the triangular eyebrow of the roof peering inquisitively at the road.
Two rooms, the clean room and the work room, the kitchen and the "târnațul" (enclosed porch), which speak of simplicity, balance and great modesty. An austere chromatic, which stems from the materiality of the 'clothes' - the white of the plaster, the brick of the tiles and the gray of the wood blackened by the rains, mark the existing space. The courtyard, the garden and the trees dress the history of the place in green.
I imagine the clean room that preserves the dowry of the girl who became a mother, then a grandmother, with fabrics, carpets, icons, plates, turning the house into a small museum that recalls hard work, toil and craftsmanship. Memories will always inhabit that place, imprinting it. The walls protect and conceal the sorrows and joys of those who have gone. It is not simply a space, but a lived space. The filling with 'being' that cannot be erased or emptied of content emotionally marks the place of 'Sein' with 'Dasein' beingness (Heidegger). Relating to this space-experience forms our personality and marks our identity and marks our evolution, as if whispering softly the project.

Our colleague's choice to preserve his grandfather's legacy comes as a decision to take on the history of the place, to strike a balance between objective and subjective space. But preservation is not just a return, but a new revelation. The taking in and expansion, development through addition, 'to make another room', implies assumption. The new volume (a bedroom with bathroom) added is a parallelepiped cut by the diagonal wall that runs razor-sharp past the tree while preserving it. The metal clad timber cladding, pierced by wooden slats, wraps around the sides and underneath the house.
The gray of the wood over the gray of the metal closes like an eyelid the sleepy eye of the new space that floats detached from the ground by lifting the terrace. This modest growth tells us a story of respect and silence, of place, house, tree, and above all of love and humility, but also of the courage of a responsible builder.
The awareness of the spatial experience, the journey, the passage inward introduces the temporal dimension to which the first and second existences relate, forming the "kosmos". The place and its inhabitation will subtly and indestructibly create the "chora", a space of the essentialization of the mason's discourse.

Arpad NAGY (b. 1986)

2012 - Erasmus Master "Preservation and Revitalization of Architectural Heritage", University of Varna, Balchik, Bulgaria
2014 - Graduate of the University of Architecture and Urbanism "ION MINCU", Bucharest, Romania
2016 - Trainee - SC Kamos SRL, Cluj-Napoca
2017 - SC Produktorg SRL - Naarchitects - individual design office

AWARDS

2011 - Third Prize - Ideas Competition, Restoration and memorial at the political prison of Râmnicu Sărat 2013 - First Prize - RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scolarship - Romania pre-selection
2013 - First Prize - Ideas Competition, Knauf in the showcase
2018 - BNA Award in the Housing Architecture Section - ex-aequo - NAB House Extension,
BNA - Nomination - Rural - NAB House Extension

Extension house NAB, Ciumani

"Living my dream"

I always wanted to become an architect. When I was a kid I used to build houses, buildings, cities out of Lego. Now, after 30 years, I am living my childhood dream and becoming an architect.
I always dreamed of living in a village and this dream has come true. I built my house in Ciumani, a small and authentic village. Rural architecture is what represents me. Cities, urban architecture "suffocates me". I really like to design minimalist, simple, detailed and well thought out projects.
I really like wood as a building material and I try to introduce it, to use it in more and more projects. I feel that it is my duty to convince my clients that it is a very beautiful material, especially useful in our area, and also a natural material.
I believe that vernacular architecture is very important and it would be very useful to teach it in schools for a more authentic architectural future.