EPA stands for Environmental Protection Architectural Institute. However, its name should not be taken literally because by "environment" the architects from Tokyo mainly refer to the artificial rather than the natural environment. in its intact preservation of the building exterior, only for its role of protection, isolation and creation of a controlled internal environment, EPA introduces a different space inside these buildings, one that is totally independent and deliberately contrasting with the former image. Using 100% artificila materials and a language borrowed from the urban world, the spaces created by the Japanese architects talk about a digital zen with stones of glass fibres, green glass forests and graffiti, which we contemplate in the most electroclash way possible.
Proiect: Yukiharu Takematsu + E.P.A
Text: Ioana Paunescu
Foto: Nacasa & Partners Inc., Masayuki Hayashi

Ignoring the latest trends of living in villas placed in residential areas, looking on the traditional houses from the Village Museum as lessons of architecture, subordinating one's project to the last stretch of forest left in the North of the city or letting oneself be influenced by the sun's transition from the East to the West, building a house for oneself nowadays bearing all these things in mind means something more than boldness. I would say a normality.
A house facing more directions, generating various spaces. Opening to the garden via a portico. An eccentric living on the ground floor and a minimalist dining several stairs above. A house shaped by light and shadows. Light that gives life to the place.
Proiect: arh. Adrian Spirescu, arh. Daniela Spirescu, ing. Alexandru Boangaer
Text: Luiza Zamora
Foto: Serban Bonciocat

The period in which the fortified manors or fortified manor houses were build roughly corresponds with the interval when the forty Phanariot reigns changed. The fortified manor from Curtisoara, built by the Cornoiu boyars, had a square plan and three levels. The cellar was on the ground floor, while the rooms and the verandah were located on the next levels. It also had a sanitary annex.
The fortified manor from Groserea was built by Barbu Cocos. It also had a square plan and the features of a massive tower. On the top floor there is a watch tower and a narrow wooden gallery that protects the manor.
Text: Luiza Zamora
Foto: Serban Bonciocat

I do not know if while leisurely strolling trrough the city nowadays. one can still come across a space untouched by color. Protean, strong or relaxing, calm or agressive, color has become a constant of our daily existence. It is however difficult to establish the border between the curative and the destructive functions of color, the more so as one cannot deny the need for its presence in the urban space.
Ancheta: Viorica Buica
foto: Ioana Tudora, Duo van der Mixt, Ciprian Dicu

Embryo is the first supper-club in Bucharest. The concept underlying its interior design illustrates the story of the human embryo. Everything is structured on the two levels in an organic and fluid manner. On the ground floor there is an exquisite, lavish restaurant; on the top level, a bar and a lounge. everything is wrapped in amniotic liquid, simbolized by RGB light.
Proiect: Square One
Text: Luiza Zamora
Foto: Nicu Ilfoveanu