This interior arrangement story does not belong to a professional designer, but to the owner himself " an amateur designer. This is what Mr. Mauro Rotta told us - an Italian with a dwelling and business in (our) Bucharest from the point of view of the person directly involved in the inhabiting of this space and, at the same time, from the point of view of a person for whom interior design has become a hobby: The arrangement of the whole space of the apartment fits his functional and esthetical requirements, very well, expressed with easiness and refinement, counselled by am architect friend. Mauro breaks the mould, declares his principles as a manifest: the space must flow, the objects must be beautiful, they must express themselves and they must exist practically " where they are needed.
TEXT: ARH. EVA ROSETTI
FOTO: ARH. MIHAI RAICU

"We, the artists, would have liked to produce a design section, from early to mid 60s, the liberation, opening years. There were some years when all we wanted to do was change this Universe. We were making chairs like in the 1900s and if asked people about it, they replied: "if these sell, why should we do different ones?" And, as far as domestic objects were concerned, they went by the rule: once done, never changed. We wanted change. It was the design department where I trained and together with some of my colleagues we wanted to change. It's then when we did these glasses, these chairs, some sort of applied art we considered design. There is a certain openness inside of us. We made plaids, tableware and it ended with a decorative art exhibition where they showed all those things and afterwards we were taking them home, as the state had no reaction. Of the 7 chairs I made, they wanted only one and they were offering the price of two chairs on the market back then. Well, this is copyright, creation in itself. Now that I look at them I feel inside a sense of recuperation. These were created then as so were the glasses. These candle-sticks were created much later; they represent a man and a woman. Everything you see in the house is objects we created".
FOTO: ARH. MIHAI RAICU, SERBAN BONCIOCAT

Part of an area privileged itself by its historical, architectural and urbanism value, Hanul cu Tei offers one of the most beautiful, most authentic Bucharest inn images " which, moreover, found its place in the city's actual life. Called in the old days Hanul lui Nastase (Nastase's Inn), it got its present name from the fragrant trees in its interior garden. There is a lot of serenity, a lot of joy is brought by the beautifully paved yard, with the benches cut into tree trunks, with paintings and icons exposed on large panels, in the open air, where one can hear, sometime, through the little window of the upper floor, coming from far away, seemingly from another world, a sound of waltz or of sonata. One can enter by each of the two majestic gates, made of wrought iron, which open " revealing the peaceful world inside " one from the Lipscani street, the famous trade street, the other from Blanari - quieter, but still commercial. Hanul cu Tei was built in 1833 by Anastasie Hagi, Gheorghe Polizu and Stefan Popovici, three tradesmen who joined their forces in order to build it. It was called "the itinerary merchants' High Street bezesten". The initials of the two are still preserved in the stuccato on top of the Blanari street entrance. The construction is solid, with thick separating walls, made of a brick layer bound with a plaster layer almost just as thick. The shops were placed on top of deep basements with high arches, and the windows were covered with iron shutters, doubled by crossbars with richly decorated extremities.
TEXT: ARH. CODINA DUSOIU
FOTO: SERBAN BONCIOCAT

We are, nowadays more than ever, in the situation to recuperate any residual space, a penthouse also offering the advantage of the spectacular. It is exactly this esthetical aspect that's responsible for the actual demand for new house projects including a mansard. Although a mansard designed from the very beginning as an inhabitable level cannot have the same picturesque quality as the once not meant initially to be lived in offer when rearranged. Fortunately, the penthouse we are dealing with today, located at the last level of a building raised at the end of last century, had all the qualities and the faults we would have wanted for such a space. Moreover, the design theme was extremely generous, allowing a less usual approach for this arrangement.
PROIECT: FAB GROUP ASSOCIATES
TEXT: ARH. BRUNO ANDRESOIU
FOTO: : ARH. MIHAI RAICU, SERBAN BONCIOCAT