Delta - City of the Future, a project by Henri Coandă and architect Dorin Iormeanu

Henri Coandă returned permanently to the country in 1969 as director of the Institute forScientificCreation andTechnology (INCREST), and the following year, 1970, he became a member of the Romanian Academy. But he was only able to work for three years. Henri Coandă died in Bucharest on November 25, 1972, at the age of 86.

In 1965 he had been invited to Romania by the newly installed Ceaușescu. He relaunched Romanian research and was appointed special adviser to the communist leader. Everything that was built in Romanian aeronautics in the 1970s, including Romania's modern defense capabilities, had Henri Coandă as its father, but many ideas remained in the early stages of the project because some of the party activists around Ceaușescu did not welcome the closeness between him and Coandă. The inventor imprinted certain liberal policies on the dictator, which did not sit well with the privileged ruling class of the Communist Party. His projects were abandoned immediately after his death.
These included "Delta - City of the Future", "Aerotubexpress" and "The Sun's highway through a tunnel". The first of these revolutionary concepts was supposed to be a secret little town built from scratch and located in Dobrogea, where Romania's most important researchers would be gathered, becoming a sort of Romania's Silicon Valley. The location was set in an idyllic and secluded place, even very isolated, at Bugival, on the beach between the Danube Delta, the Sfântu Gheorghe and Sulina inlets and the Black Sea coast, where the land is 10 kilometers long and 2 kilometers wide.

Apart from being a place for the country's elite, a sort of incubator of brains, this town had a few peculiarities. One had to do with the housing, designed by architect Dorin Iormeanu as... eggs. After graduating in Architecture and Fine Arts, Dorin Iormeanu had the opportunity to work with Henri Coanda on the "Delta - City of the Future" project. Iormeanu came up with an architectural concept that had never been seen before. Instead of apartments, Iormeanu envisioned egg-shaped, self-propelled spaces that could be lowered into the underwater environment. Coandă liked the plan and turned it into the Delta Project, a secret city for the elite. Iormeanu became head of the project. Another peculiarity of the "City of the Future" was the mixed transportation systems that were to link it to the seaside resorts, one above and one underwater. The above-ground transportation would be by conventional road, by car, but also by air, using flying machines operating on the Lenticular Aerodynamic System, the famous flying saucer devised by Coandă in 1933 and patented by him in the United States in 1957. The underwater transportation system consisted of transparent vacuum tubes through which Aerotubexpress-type coaches could travel, reaching as far as Constanța. Some models of the Delta Project, including the means of locomotion, are on display at the Dimitrie Leonida Technical Museum in Bucharest.(https://newsteam.ro/)

Bugival's futuristic project would eventually include numerous facilities: about 2,500 unconventional "hotel" rooms; 1,000 independent ovoid living cells; 7 bars and restaurants; cultural center with museums, exhibition halls, 4 cinemas, 2 theaters; medical center; stadium; educational and research laboratories; conference halls. The "Delta - IOR" project, supervised by Henri Coandă, was conceived in 1970 by the architect Dorin Iormeanu-Dimitriu, then only 28 years old, and was considered by specialists to be the most avant-garde architectural and urban planning complex of its time (perhaps it remains so today), but also a feasible challenge. Among them was the scientist, inventor and academician Henri Coandă, then Minister of State and President of the National Institute of Scientific and Technical Creation INCREST, who supported and promoted it.
The "Delta - IOR" complex, conceived in a renaissance-modern style, under a complex idea of architecture, engineering and visual arts, was to be protected from mosquitoes by an ultrasound curtain. It included hotel complexes clustered around large aquariums (which would give tourists the sensation of living at the bottom of the sea), a cultural complex with theaters and cinemas with the screen projected onto the vault of the sky (like laser light shows), etc. The dominant geometric shape everywhere was the egg. Henri Coandă understood the importance of the project, its ideas and its impact on architectural and tourist-urbanistic thinking and, in May 1971, he created for Dorin Iormeanu, within INCREST, the "DELTA Program" Department, which the young architect headed until the great scientist's death (end of 1972). Afterwards, the project was classified as a state secret and blocked, and Dorin Iormeanu emigrated to France with his work in his pocket and never resumed the project, wanting to realize it only in Romania. Twenty years later, the author of the "Delta - IOR" project returned to the country in an attempt to revive his avant-garde architectural idea by exhibiting reproductions of drawings and models at the Art Museum in Constanța. Based on an essentially curved module, the realization of which envisages the use of lightweight and innovative materials with technical solutions for the first time, the proposal for the Sfântu Gheorghe-Bugival tourist complex gives overwhelming importance to aesthetics with functional virtues. "In order to be modern, an architectural work must be created ahead of the technology of the time, and it is generally created as a result of the technical and social evolution of the society in which it was born. The concept presupposed the creation of a new environmental framework, finding a symbiosis between the human psyche and spirit and the ambient architectural framework; a symbiosis between volumes, architectural objects and the natural setting, the landscape in which architecture had to merge, to form an integral part, to complete it and to be born from it. A different relationship and connection was sought between the individual and the collective habitat, leading to a different way of integrating the individual into the collective. No less important was a revival of the concept of architecture and its readjustment to modern technology and to the needs and knowledge of the man of the next century - the 21st. In a period in which the conception of an architectural work degenerated into the technique of building a shelter, architecture thus declined from the position of avant-garde art and science, from the function of a locomotive to that of a wagon, thus delaying to make use of the immense discoveries of this century of great dynamism and scientific and technical upheavals", explained Dorin Iormeanu the idea that started his Delta - IOR approach.
For the choice of the ovoid shape as the model of the housing cell, architect Iormeanu invoked the psycho-spiritual motivation, in addition to the technical-constructive and artistic arguments, emphasizing that it is suitable for industrial multiplication and aesthetically perfect. From the construction point of view, the project "Delta-Bugival (Sf. Gheorghe) leisure and research center, mini-horaces of science, research and arts, active rest, international tourism center" is divided into three categories of structures with as many different functional categories.

The individual living area is made up of independent ovoid modules, grouped together as a spheroid cluster or recessed and interlocking in the large structures of thin webs and rigid reinforced concrete elements. The ovoid measures 4.5 x 6.5 m, is made of a double membrane of translucent synthetic material and has the possibility to be colored and change its color as desired, thanks to so-called liquid blinds. The cell's technical basement contains the liquid tanks, miniaturized pumps, water filtration, waste purification, air conditioning, drive axle and other special equipment. In an upper compartment, located between the living space and the bathroom/kitchenette, there is an electrical system with a dual energy supply: urban grid and solar energy, accumulated by photovoltaic cells of the photovoltaic panels mounted on an outer portion of the ovoid module. A flexible communication antenna (TV, telephone, etc.) is also mounted in the same compartment for stand-alone use. The floor platform has an external extension for fitting into the fixed concrete structures of large hotel complexes or intermediate housing structures. From the center of balance of the platform, a telescopic rod descends, which can have independent planting support and support of the traction wheels in the case of mobile cells. The floor plate has parts that can be raised up to 30-40 cm above or lowered 20 cm below by an electrically operated hydraulic system to allow the furniture to be remodeled as desired, the same space can become a bedroom, living room, dining room or study room. Two hermetic double-glazed windows, similar to ship or airplane portholes, allow perfect outward visibility, with a sliding window cover plate. The module's double access door is identical in design to that of airplanes. When the liquid curtains are not operated, the translucency of the ovoid allows the passage of time to be perceived from dawn to night. All electrical, air-conditioning, water supply and sewage installations have exit points in the external extension of the floor platform and in the telescopic rod, allowing the module to be automatically connected to the urban networks when it is not left absolutely independent, in which case it uses its own energy source, water filtration, etc., the "IOR" ovoid module can stand on or under water up to a depth of 30 meters.
The terrestrial common area is made up of several large assemblies of prestressed reinforced concrete structures, rigid structures and thin sails, of sculptural plasticity, giving the impression of huge naturally modeled arrangements, emerging from the waves of the sea or the sand dunes with which they merge and of which they are an organic and intrinsic part. Three of these structures, representing hotel ensembles, also form multi-level enclosing structures for housing ovoids, two of them (the largest) providing around 1,200 beds each. The module lifting system is modeled after that of hydraulic elevators, allowing the modules to be raised, lowered or exchanged. The large and airy common areas contain restaurants, bars, shops, restaurants, bars, shops, places to relax, entertain or rest. The cultural ensemble is composed of four architectural "sculptures" containing libraries, a video library, two theaters, three cinemas (one experimental), an auditorium, a performance hall, an ethnographic museum, a scientific museum and an exhibition center. This is counterbalanced by a medical complex which also includes a sanatorium for mental relaxation (for asthenic patients), a huge eggshell of thin concrete with individual rest cells inside. Ovoid cells, resting on sliding rods, gently swaying, surrounded by a permanent background of vague, almost imperceptible music, a play of light and shadow with a restful, hypnotic effect. In between the two complexes (cultural and medical) is a third one, set further back from the sea and with fewer rooms. It was designed as a computer center, with seminar rooms and lecture halls, work rooms and underground laboratories. Nine smaller, spheroid housing centers consisting of a structure of ovoid modules around a vertically arranged central access space complete the auxiliary housing requirements. The city stadium "Delta - IOR" is located under a huge spherical concrete dome covered with a transparent membrane. On the seafront, positioned on the central axis of the systematization, a metal monument 18 meters high was designed. Below the platforms leading to the monument is a marine museum with a series of sculptures in the middle of the central basalt hall, while in the other exhibition halls you can hear the continuous roar of the waves, captured by an amplification system. The concrete layers of the assemblies are coated with a phosphorescent substance, which at night turns them into huge sculptures of greenish-yellow luminosity, from which the differently perceived lights of the ovoid modules stand out in places.

The third area of the "Delta - IOR" mini-city - the UndergroundCommon Area - consists of several nuclei located on 4-5 underground levels (of different heights), two of which are for direct social use. They are distributed differently. The "Alpha" hotel complex is the one with a sculptural fleche on the surface, in which the TV and radio tower is located. It has two basements containing apartments, with rooms grouped around a huge marine aquarium, as well as most of the hotel and maintenance services. The "Beta" complex has two basements for a university and a pilot school for gifted children. The two institutions will operate in permanent contact with the "Center for Scientific and Cultural Artistic Research" and will benefit from the support of the personalities who will visit, live and work in the "Delta-IOR" complex. The "Omega" complex includes a computer center with two underground levels of laboratories and study rooms (research in various scientific fields). The "Sigma" complex, on two underground levels, has art workshops, study rooms, sound and image laboratories, library and video archives, etc. The health and medical center has medical, biology, chemistry, parapsychology laboratories, etc. on its two underground levels. All the large complexes have two underground levels for utilities, power plants, water filtration, waste treatment, pump rooms, generators and maintenance workshops, as well as connecting stations - underground transportation with their control centers, maintenance points, refrigerated rooms, commercial and storage areas, etc., and the vital power plant, which supplies all the facilities and systems of the "Delta-IOR", is located in the basement on level 5.
Within the "Delta - IOR" circulation systems have been designed: Underground - local with electric mini-train on magnetic sliders, running on short distances (between the complexes of the little town); interurban transport of passengers or goods with capsules, by means of gas friction tubes on the basis of the Coandă Principle, connecting the center of Delta - IOR with the cities of Tulcea and Constanța ("Aerotubexpres"); terrestrial - light electric vehicles parked in the open, at the disposal of residents and visitors, each complex having battery recharging points; air-cushion vehicles for trips in the Danube Delta; nautical - large air-cushion vehicles for connecting to the cities and resorts on the Black Sea coast; aerial - heliport, located on the beach behind the large hotel complexes.
The Delta - IOR Center was to be located on a fine sandy beach more than 10 km long and almost 2 km wide, with the buildings erected on concrete platforms, supported by pillars poured into firm soil layers. Some of the areas supporting the platforms can also be stiffened by deep vitrified sand tubes.
The design of this City of the Future also contained an important i-materialzone. This area is made up of a sonic (almost imperceptible musical curtains that mix the sounds of the waves, of the birds of the Delta with an artificially created cultured music that spills over all the surrounding spaces, exterior and interior) and a visual (a system of lights and shadows). Added to this is the nocturnal phosphorescence of the concrete structures and their diurnal, whitish sculpturality, merged into the yellowish-white of the sand and the whitish-blue of the sky. A system of laser beams projects volumes and images onto the sky, creating a huge three-dimensional fresco in motion, complemented by holograms.
"The Delta - IOR project is not just an architectural and urban planning project, it is a concept for structuring and creating an architectural, creative and social environment" - said Dorin Iormeanu-Dimitriu. The collective coordinated by him within the INCREST Institute, led by Academician Henri Coandă, clarified many technical issues during the two years of work, filed a series of patents, and presented the author's vision in a much more comprehensive and structured way, demonstrating the coherence, feasibility and advantages of the Delta-IOR project. The work was at one point classified as a state secret by the communist regime and it was only 30 years later that the project was revived in the volume HenriCoandă - 3 projects for the 3rd millennium (the lenticular aerodine, a sort of code name for the flying saucer, Aerotubexpres and Delta - Iormeanu) published by Geneze. Of course, after so many decades since the project's inception, even the author's thoughts and opinions, plus those generated by recent discoveries or experiments, can change. Certain materials, whose resistance over time could not be controlled, need to be reconsidered, but new technologies can solve these problems. On these issues, Dorin Iormeanu emphasized: "Concrete, reinforced or not, is still a new material, whose behaviour over time is not yet very well known. It could be that many major civil engineering or structural works will be less resistant over time or in a different way than originally thought. There is now a suspicion that premature ageing of the concrete, an ageing of the material, could be possible, which could lead to catastrophes, particularly in the case of reservoir dams, for example. If the Delta - IOR project were to be revived, the large reinforced concrete structures and thin concrete spans could be made of a different material, just as the sculpted structures could be alternated with more practical modular ones. The living cell may also undergo changes. The lower technical space may have a different, smaller equipment. The colored liquid curtains will be operated differently and may have a different ambient coloring than that proposed in 1970. The solar panel photocells and motric system would also be more efficient. Cell sizes could be changed thanks to the performance of new technologies, and even slightly deformable walls could be achieved, which would give a different tactile impact to the volume. But the ovoid habitat remains, in my opinion, the ideal space and Agora - a necessity. It is obvious that the immense development of informatics in the last 40 years will bring enormous support in everything that is the arterial and nervous system of the imagined city, transportation and communications. Fast, flexible and silent, the internal transportation system linked to the interurban one will be part of the habitat. It goes without saying that Zone IV, the zone of transparent architecture, will take on a much greater and ever-expanding importance. In the future the energy screens, psychic energy, the almost instantaneous energy-transfer transportation of matter, envisaged in the Delta - IOR living concept, probably also the basic elements of the future human life mode, will break all the canons of architectural, urban, artistic and technological principles of yesterday's society, which we still erroneously call today's! If someone would now dare to go on the road, again, with this project, there might be changes in details, but not in substance! It would probably have gone a long way in resolving the details and finding futuristic solutions for the implementation of the Delta - IOR project, if it had not been for the rupture caused by the unfortunate disappearance of the project's moral and logistical sponsor, Academician Henri Coandă, which also led to my retirement from the Institute and my departure from the country"- concluded Dorin Iormeanu, at the end of the public presentation of his project in Romania, made 30 years after its conception.
Dorin Iormeanu-Dimitriu was born in 1942 in Craiova. Plastic artist, designer, architect and researcher, he is the author of the original architectural project "Delta - City of the Future", promoted and supported by the scientist Henri Coandă. After the latter's death, Iormeanu went into exile and settled in France, where he had dual nationality. Until his return to the country after 1990, he was intensively active in architecture and fine arts. His interiors, design and engineering firm realized a number of major projects in Europe and Africa, particularly in Nigeria, from 1974 to 1996. Since 1997 he has devoted himself exclusively to the arts - sculpture, painting, graphic, decorative and interior arts, as well as writing. Dorin Iormeanu graduated in 1964 from the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning, and in 1971 from the "Nicolae Grigorescu" Institute of Art as head of the class, with the distinction "Magna cum laude", Faculty of Decorative Arts - Metal Section. In 1980, he obtained his doctorate in Paris, with the thesis "Functional principles and aesthetic concepts in architecture and urban projects". Between 1962-1987 he participated in a series of art exhibitions in Bucharest, Warsaw, Milan, Lausanne, Lausanne, Cologne, Bonn, Bonn, Moscow, Orly and Paris. He has had solo exhibitions of paintings, graphics, sculpture (in iron, steel and bronze) and architectural projects, which he opened between 1967 and 1997 in Craiova, Eforie Nord, Mangalia, Bucharest, Beirut, Benin City, London, Paris, Cadiz, Abuja and Lagos. He produced monumental works (ceramics, metal, murals, sculptural groups, etc.) in Bucharest, Mamaia, Sofia, Beirut, Beirut, Tel Aviv and Lagos. He has also realized another series of artistic works for private collectors in France, England, Lebanon, Spain, Greece, Greece, Nigeria, USA and Brazil. In the field of architecture, Dorin Iormeanu has executed projects and realized construction and interior design works in Bucharest, Tyre, Lagos, Benin City, Badgarz, Abuja, Cadiz, etc. Also between 1971-1997, Dorin Iormeanu has been involved in management activities (as partner, distributor or Chairman of the Board of Directors) in several construction, design, consulting, research or architectural firms in Nigeria, USA, France, UK. Between 1994-1997, he served as President of the Romanian-Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. His main architectural works include the Lagos headquarters of British American Insurance (a self-sufficient building in a lagoon area near the Atlantic, commissioned in 1994) and the tourist village "El Conjunto Yoreal" (28 villas, bungalows, hotel with hanging gardens, commercial premises, restaurants, etc.) in the Mediterranean Spain, San Roque, Gibraltar - commissioned in 1985. Dorin Iormeanu-Dimitriu passed away in Paris after a long suffering. The funeral ceremony took place at Père-Lachaise Cemetery on October 14, 2016.

- excerpt from the volume Henri Coandă - the secret files of the brilliant inventor, an aggregation of information by Dan-Silviu Boerescu, forthcoming at Neverland Publishing House -