The increasingly alarming situation of the architecture which invaded during the last years the Vama Veche area determined the coordinators of the movement "Save Vama Veche" to initiate a demarche for the modification of the existent general urbanistic plan, improper to the tourist specific of the area. Upon a contest organized by the Minister of Transport and Tourism, the responsibility of the elaboration of a new GUP, proper for the conditions in the area, passed on to the Cluj company of architecture and urbanism - Planwerk.
ANCHETA: VIORICA BUICA
FOTO: PLANWERK CLUJ

Let's go down from Mircea cel Batran Street, in Constanta, to Crazy Bar, a name calligraphically highlighted on a brass sheet, later emerging to the terrace facing the former park in front of the Sports' Hall, full of so many teenager stories.
I don't know if by all means there is any conditioning between the title and the subject. What may be catalogued as crazy nowadays? It's not an ordinary place, at least in correlating the chill-out music and the indoor display. It is here that the interior is rather abstemious, still warm, organized and moderatedly coloured. The superfluous elements have been avoided in order to give way to essential structures and comfort. There are three areas of diverse comfort: the one next to the papered and rhythmically feeble wall, where the sofas sustain a prolongued meal, followed by dynamism in the middle, where the brown leather chairs embrace you, and a third area, a few stairs higher, different again. It is the closest sequence to the street, an imaginary one, of course. Moreover, it simulates the whirlpool of a city located 7.500 km away in a straight line: New York, the old one. The terrace seen from the park seems absorbed by its vegetation, well and naturally integrated to what was left of the park. The same way as inside, the materials are natural and the cuts have been minimized, using few details and great texture spots. The inner wall is entirely covered in wood, made up like a diverted window-shade. For diversity, the roof can be seen in three different ways: it has a covered area and two pergolas, one à la japonaise, squaring the sky, and another bedarkened by sails. The striped rocks descend on the pavement also, pleasantly texturizing the place. The functional and environmental illuminating system atomizes each precinct in the evening.
PROIECT: RE-ACT STUDIO NOW, ARH. MARIO KUIBUS
TEXT: LUIZA ZAMORA
FOTO: SERBAN BONCIOCAT

A kind of citadel in the centre of the forest (a forest not quite far away from the fuss of Bucharest, still providing enough quiet space to aspire after a genuine habitation), the house achieved its features froma new conceptual dialogue carried on by the owners and the architect, a close friend of the family. The owners wished a spacious house, open, flooded by lightm, which may fully put good use to its environment.
PROIECT: ARH. ANDREEA BARBULESCU
TEXT: VIORICA BUICA
FOTO: SERBAN BONCIOCAT

The construction of the Balchik palace, one of the most favourite residences of Queen Maria, began in 1925. The works took four years. Apart from the palace erected next to the seashore, there have been built a number of pavilions, spread through the marvelous garden arranged by the Queen, but also a small Byzantine-style church, where a silver box enclosing the Queen's heart has been laid. All through the years she came here or during which she lived in isolation due to her eldest son, Queen Maria took care passionately of the entire palace estate, especially of the garden which gathered up flowers and plants “of the most various kinds and fragrances”, of the winding paths paved with white slabs, of its waterfalls and water lily pools, an estate she always tried to enlarge.
TEXT: LUIZA ZAMORA
FOTO: SERBAN BONCIOCAT

The 51st edition of the Venice Biennal has been for long promoted in the manner of a premiere in the entire history of the institution: for the first time, the artistical direction bears a double signature, and, also for the first time, the curator of this exhibition is uttered femininely. Moreover, again for the first time, countries like Afghanistan, Albania, Belarus, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, or Uzbekistan were represented in this exhibition. According to Mrs. María de Corral and Mrs. Rosa Martínez, the selection avoided categories and concepts in favour of a labyrinthine essay, capable of raising infinite contacts between actors, topics, shapes and spaces. In both ways, the starting point is a “safe” one.
TEXT: OANA TANASE
FOTO: WWW.LABIENNALE.ORG