Cultural Port
Thematic Dossier
Cultural Port
Cultural Port
Text and photo by Dragoș CIOLACU
PORT cultural is a government-funded suPORT program, through which we brought together, in 2018, three universities and two research institutes with the aim of identifying and capitalizing on all that can be found in traditional houses not (yet) touched by the urban "model". For the potential, we have chosen two regions offering authentic architecture - Bucovina and Southern Transylvania. Even if even here it is not what it was, we found enough good examples, safe from the temptation of modernization to justify a village condemned to lose its identity on the altar of comfort and assumed falsehood.
The aim of our intervention was not, however, to musealize the chosen houses, but to give them a chance of survival through refunctionalization - tourism, culture, social are just a few of the programs that can make change non-invasive. We managed to choose 20 houses in each region, surveyed them and proposed functional extensions within the existing volume or by juxtaposing volumes of the same stylistic register. The result was two catalogs with projects, exhibition panels and a guide to good practices in traditional crafts. The documentary material is intended for the local administration, the only one that could thereby diminish the bad taste with prosperity hyphens. The dissemination was done at various celebrations and fairs, where people gather and become more attentive to details. Beyond the statistical results of our action, the personal gain we recorded was the discovery of a human warmth that was not only born, but also settled in the village. From the cohesion of the team to the life stories of the houses and the people who live in them, we have traveled an exploratory path that has managed to dispel the fear mentioned above, but which, unfortunately, remains. The summer schools, the craft workshops, the efforts of the volunteers who are trying to save what they can are so many signs of spiritual health.
What follows are some of the testimonies of this experience shared by people who are deeply moved by their mission.
- Carmen Chașovschi is a PhD lecturer at Suceava University
- Ionuț Dohotariu is an assistant architect PhD student at the Technical University of Iași
- Pascal Garnier is a consultant and tour guide at his own travel agency - "Țara Autentică"
