Thematic file

International Solutions Contest for the Revitalization of the Fireman Tower

Vlad Sebastian RUSU

International solutions competition for the revitalization

Fire Brigade Tower

text: Vlad Sebastian RUSU

A new chance
The personal experience related to the competition for the revitalization of the Firemen's Tower in Cluj, launched in the winter of 2017 by the City Hall in partnership with the Romanian Order of Architects, encompasses all its stages: from the phase of rationale and public consultation to the implementation of the winning solution. This competition represents a resumption of this public procurement procedure by the local government for its own investments, after a break of several years, during which it was preferred to award design contracts on the quantitative criteria of public tenders.
At the same time, this competition is, unfortunately, one of the few examples of competitions in our country whose winning solutions end up being commissioned by the promoter of the competition for design and approval tasks, and then go on to the implementation and execution stage. For this reason, there is also an important stake of this competition: to end with an architectural success at the end of the whole process, which will strengthen the confidence of all - architects and public promoters - in the instrument of architectural design competition as an alternative for transparent and value-based award of design contracts for public investments. In Cluj, the effect of this competition has already produced a norm for the award of design services for important community objectives, with seven national or international competitions organized in the last three years, both by the City Hall and the County Council. These have concluded with the signing of design contracts with the winning teams and are today in various stages of development. Of these, the project for the Fire Brigade Tower is the most advanced, being in the second year of the two-year construction period.
competition
Organizing this competition was a challenge for our guild as it came after a period of mistrust from the local developer about the procedure. The experience gained by the organizing collective of architectural competitions, within the Romanian Order of Architects, consolidated during the experience of previous successes or failures, was very important. The opportunities offered by the improvement of the legislative framework with the enactment of Law 98/2016 on Public Procurement, which allows the contracting authority to purchase a project and design services together, selected by a jury on a competitive basis, have also contributed. In addition to all this, of course, are the directives of the European legislation on public procurement as well as the recommendations of the International Union of Architects, which encourage competitions open to all architectural firms.

This competition, called "The Tower of the Three Ages", was intended to reactivate and include in a tourist circuit the Firemen's Tower, a monument classified as being of national importance on the List of Historical Monuments in Romania. Its history begins in the 15th century, with the construction of the second fortified enclosure of Cluj, a history that brought a change in height, by raising the medieval segment with a new segment added in the 19th century. The tower suffered two fires that severely damaged its interior and led to reinforcements with concrete planking and stair flights in the mid-20th century. Left with poor accessibility due to its seven concrete levels, the tower has been subject to abandonment in recent years and was in an advanced state of decay at the time of the launch of the solutions competition. In addition to this study objective, the section of Tipografiei Street in front of the tower was also improved in order to improve pedestrian access to it.
The Romanian Order of Architects has contracted the services for the organization and promotion in the public space of the architectural competition, following the principles of already validated exercises in this field, substantiated in 2018 by the Romanian Order of Architects' Competitions Department in a "Guide of good practices for the organization of architectural/urban planning solution competitions". Thus, the theme and the competition rules were elaborated, accompanied by the following minimum documentation and supporting studies: the tower survey, topographic survey, technical expertise, geotechnical study, historical study and a photographic documentary. By the theme, the tower was seen as an attractor for the former soap-makers' quarter, located at the north-eastern boundary of the medieval fortified enclosure. In this sense, the theme proposed a study not only of how the tower could be reactivated, but also a vision for a future urban planning phase, the development of the public space determined by the streets in the neighborhood. The jury was made up of specialists from home and abroad, who had three days to assess the 25 projects entered in the competition. This was rounded off with an exhibition of all the entries and a prize-giving ceremony for the top four projects in the hierarchy, in the presence of a large audience, including representatives of the public promoter.

The winning project
The main quests of the winning solution are as follows:
The argument of the solution - the tower, built in successive layers, used for defending and later for looking at the city, remains through our proposal an urban observatory, a place of contemplation and reading of urban becoming. The third age is materialized through a discreet, integrated and unitary intervention, which aims by simple and reversible means to achieve a consistent activation of the tower, while also offering a reading of the city's past and future. The diorama becomes part of the expression of this reading, both on the scale of an emerging reality (the proposed new level) and of past realities, captured at different stages of the city's evolution. The third age stands under the sign of absence, transparency and translucence, yet it remains present through the impulses it aims to convey to the visitor and the city.
The translucent core - this becomes the new backbone of the tower, facilitating access to the upper level, allowing the interior space to be visited and providing structural rigidity. Proposed as a semi-transparent veil, the core thus becomes part of the third age of the tower, revealing the other stages and phases of its evolution.
Hierarchization of the interior space - imagined as a descending route, the tour of the tower starts from the highest panoramic level, where the visitor plays the dual role of actor and spectator of a present reality. From here, the tour descends through different spaces and layers, offering a series of sensory experiences, together with a narrative exhibition thread that reveals past realities. The visitor experiences and investigates moments in the history of the city and the tower through the spatial scenes of the dioramas and augmented reality present along the visitor route.

Mirror and model of the city - the hierarchization of the experience of visiting the tower starts from the contemplation of the city as a whole, captured in a modern-day reality, from the highest point, imagined as a living diorama, without limits, with only a discreet outline, from within which the city is seen and reflected through the filter of each individual viewer. The model of the fortified medieval city proposed at this level thus becomes the only element suspended in time, which is always mirrored, preserving in the collective mind the moment when the history of the tower began.
Layers with memory - the tower has grown with the city and the traces of this evolution can be read on it. These traces become layers with memory, taken up in the proposal as moments of rest and reading during the visit. The imagined spaces discreetly detach themselves from the inner shell of the tower, marking the stage of the third age. Their sensory content is supported by minimal display pieces alongside the existing dioramas in the central core.
Materiality - all the new elements are proposed to be made of metal elements, painted white, which detach from the inner and outer cladding of the tower, generating a certain semi-transparency for the reading of the first two ages of the tower.
Heritage Restoration - it is proposed to completely remove all concrete elements, built in the 7th and 8th decades of the 20th century, compartmentalizing or filling existing voids and niches. On the interior, the plaster applied to the stone masonry of the medieval segment of the tower will be removed, retaining the apparent masonry. The forecourt road will be activated by providing access at its level and by proposing a discreet and semi-transparent balustrade, in keeping with the formal and material expression of the proposed third age. All exterior carpentry, rendering and ceramic tile cladding will be refurbished or replaced with identical elements that retain similar materials, textures and construction techniques to the original.

The extension works involve the vertical extension, which will be carried out by means of a metal structure composed of pillars fixed by stiffening in the horizontal plane from the historic elevation of the Baroque segment. The roof of the extension will be made of a horizontally braced metal structure with a washer effect.
Perspective finality - the urban concept - the proposed vision aims at the implementation of phased transformations at the level of an extended urban area, which also includes Mihai Viteazul Square, directly linked to the studied site. These transformations aim to create a unitary and connecting concept between the territory inside the former medieval enclosure, proposed for development, and that of the square, which will function together through a wide pedestrianization of all streets and calming of car traffic. This is possible only by realizing an underground parking lot in Mihai Viteazul Square (an older project of the Municipality of Cluj) which, together with the Leul Complex's underground parking lot, will ensure that the public space will be free of cars. Under these conditions, their access will be restricted only for residents and for supplies.
Another aspect pursued by the pedestrianization of the area is the activation and opening of inner courtyards to public access. This phenomenon exists today, and its amplification will be helped by facilitating the emergence of catering and service functions to complement the existing ones. It also relies on the presence of heritage buildings (such as the Fire Brigade Tower) and those to be listed, which can become landmarks in the area.

Last but not least, the urban concept aims to re-evaluate some of the public spaces that are present but not properly used. These include the square with an artesian fountain at the end of Cuza Voda Street, the existing park near the Traian Bridge and, of course, Mihai Viteazul Square. All these public spaces can become both places of identification and urban articulation within the area, as well as elements of interest in the pedestrian route between Avram Iancu Square and Mihai Viteazul Square. Andrei Saguna Street, which has recently become pedestrianized, also needs to be reassessed, as it has failed to become an attractor for the various economic activities specific to such spaces. One of the solutions for its revitalization may be its inclusion in a route with points of interest on the east-west axis, by opening the Canal of the Mill and assuming it as a structuring element of pedestrian routes along its course.
The pedestrianization of the Tipografiei Street, together with the opening of the existing inner courtyard on the north side of the tower, aims to make the visit of the Firemen's Tower more accessible and to create a link with the Andrei Saguna Street. The proposed solutions are restrained, aiming primarily at the choice of materials that ensure a beautiful patination over time, together with some pieces of urban furniture and vegetation that identify and activate places with particular characters: the entrance to the tower, the existing park at the eastern end of the street and the inner courtyard with the northern access from the Morii Canal.

Follow-up and conclusions
Following the solutions competition for the revitalization of the Firemen's Tower at the end of February 2017, the contract was signed between the team declared winner of the competition and the City Hall of Cluj-Napoca. Through this contract, the two objectives were considered, according to the design theme of the solutions competition: the revitalization of the tower and the improvement of the section of Tipografiei Street, located in the vicinity of the tower. The time needed to develop the project was very tight, negotiated with the beneficiary of the works at six months, during which the following design phases had to be completed and handed over to the winners of the competition:

The execution budget for the revitalization of the Fire Brigade Tower, according to the project, was estimated at € 1,640,489 excluding VAT, and for the development of the section of Typography Street at € 255,142 excluding VAT. In autumn 2018 the construction site was started, the works are currently underway, with a completion date in autumn 2020.
Ultimately, we hope that this entire approach will become the norm for other objectives of interest to the community and that it will be increasingly supported by both the decision-makers and the professional community. Fortunately, in Cluj, the local administration has understood the benefits of the architectural competition which, in addition to a qualitative selection from a wide range of solutions, offers the politicians a very important vector of image among the local community, based on transparency of decision-making and the professional quality of the entire approach. We believe that this is a good moment for the creation of architecture and urbanism at national level, encouraged by this competitive tool and which can make a decisive contribution to improving public order and the quality of the built environment.
The design team and related services consisted of the following specialists:
General designer: Vlad Sebastian Rusu Individual Architectural Office - project manager dr. arh. Vlad Sebastian Rusu.
Architectural specialty: Vlad Sebastian Rusu Individual Architectural Office - dr. arh. Vlad Sebastian Rusu and arh. Anda Gheorghe.
Octav Silviu Olănescu Individual Office of Architecture - dr. arh. Octav Olănescu and arh. Anamaria Olănescu. Specialty resistance: Asiza Birou de Arhitectură SRL - eng. Ovidiu Rusu.
Specialty electrical and sanitary installations: Gradinstal SRL - eng. Paul Biriș.
Specialty vertical systematization, roads and platforms: Remoss SRL - eng. Remus Mărginean.
Topography and Cadastre: PFA - eng. top. Ovidiu Moldovan.
Geological studies: Cape Geotehnica SRL - eng. geol. Gabriel Baciu.
Expert Ministry of Culture: prof. dr. dr. arh. Prof. Adriana Matei.
Tower technical expertise: expert MC and MLPAT - prof. dr. eng. Prof. Ludovic Kopenetz.
Technical expertise Strada Tipografiei: expert MDRAP - eng. Nicolae A. Popescu.
Biological expertise: Bioharcom SRL - expert MC - dr. biol. Livia Bucșa.
Physical expertise: Tanoprest SRL - expert MLPAT B1, E - eng. Peter. Alex. Adalbert.
In situ research: Urban INCD-INCERC - dr. eng. eng. Claudiu Matei.
Archaeological diagnosis: Trans Arheolst SRL - historian dr. Adrian Rusu.
Parament study: PFA - art historian dr. Zsolt Kovács.
Historical-urbanistic study: art historian Dr. Bordás Beáta and art historian Dr. Weisz Attila.

SUMMARY OF THE MAGAZINE ARHITECTURA, NR.5-6/ 2019
COMPETITION