Sulina lighthouse

DESIGN TEAM

Architecture: arh. ILEANA LUSCOV; Project manager: eng. VALENTIN STOLOJAN; Resistance: eng. ION MARINESCU; Installations: engineers MIHAI SIMA (technological and weak currents), CORNEL SMARANDACHE (electrical), MIHAELA UDRAN (thermal); Advisors: arh. FLORIN IONESCU (architecture), eng. GHEORGHE ȘERBAN (resistance)
GENERAL DESIGNER: INSTITUTE OF AUTOMOBILE, NAVAL AND AIR TRANSPORTATION DESIGN - CONSTRUCTION SECTION

In order to improve navigation and to ensure its safety in the Sulina harbor area, AFDJ (Lower Danube River Administration) ordered the functional replacement of the lighthouse built in 1954 (21 m high) by a new one, equipped with a modern permanent optical signaling equipment, with a 7.44 km beam and automatic sound system for fog. Waiting areas were also to be provided for the pilots accompanying the ships on landing and for the control personnel.
The optimum location was 9 km offshore. In view of the very high cost of the platform created in the water, the necessary lighthouse housekeeping was kept to a minimum, occupying an area of about 1,200^m2, including a circulation space around the lighthouse and the necessary annexes, septic tank, decanting tank, fuel tanks, etc.
The architectural solution aimed to find a silhouette with major aesthetic, plastic and dynamic qualities, but starting from the most economical solution resulting from static calculations and, at the same time, the most easily achievable.
On the basis of meticulous, comparative, static and economical calculations in terms of material consumption and speed of execution, it was decided to build a cylindrical reinforced concrete tower with an external diameter of 4.40 m and a height (technological criterion) of 48.80 m, which would support all the other annexed rooms, made of cantilevered floor slabs.
The tower was built using sliding formwork. The alluvial soil required it to be founded on 20 Benoto columns Ø 108 with L = 200 t.f.
The static calculation was also based on seismicity criteria, taking into account 3 specific forms of vibration.
In order to avoid the monotony inherent in the layout of a 48 m high cylinder, the other functions were designed on polygonal planes, intersecting the circular planes of the tower, realized in cantilever, by means of radial beams placed at different levels.
The ground activity functions were arranged on two levels surrounding the base of the tower and utilizing the tower foundations.
The vertical circulation inside the lighthouse is through the staircase around the elevator.
The lighthouse was finished with white marble mosaic plywood, differently worked, in asizes on the cylinder and with deep vertical striations on the cantilevered surfaces.
The woodwork and metalwork were painted dark red. The shining white silhouette, the monumentality, achieved by verticality, in strong contrast with the expansive horizon of the sea creates a singular accent in the area of the junction of the Danube and the Black Sea, constituting both a notable technical achievement and a point of tourist interest, personalizing the port area of Sulina.

Arhitectura magazine, nr. 2/1984