It's difficult to write about OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture) and about REm Koolhaas, the man who, in mid 70's, established, together with Elia and Zoe Zebghelis and Madelon Vriesendrop this less than usula architecture office, without making any referance to concepts such as deconstructivism, "framing" or "bigness". The theoretical contribution of Koolhaas to the study of the contemporary architecture was, and still is, overwhelming. beyond his writings, Koolhaas remains, first of all, an architect. Better still, one whose projects transform the social existence of the big cities of the world.
Proiect: Biblioteca Centrala din Seattle (Arhitecti: OMA/LMN, Ingineri: Arup/Magnusson), Casa Muzicii din Porto (Arhitecti principali: Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon, Arhitect local: Jorge Carvalho, ANC Architects), Ambasada Olandei la Berlin (Arhitect principal: Re
Text: Viorica Buica
Foto: OMA, Nicolas Firket, Christian Richters
Planuri: OMA

Built almost at the same time as the founding of the Wallachian feudal state, Saint Nicholas Church in Curtea de Arges, necropolis of the first Basarab Voevods, was presumably a metropolitan church but also the place where where the relics of some saints worsshiped by the Balkan Orthodox believers were kept. This church could have had all the features of an authentic "monumentum princeps", as all the churches having the characteristic mentioned above are called, if its decoration had been ostentatiously displayed and the chronicles of that time had not ceased to mention it as being the biggest and most beautiful church in Wallachia.
Text: Luiza Zamora
Foto: Serban Bonciocat

Open in September 2005, the Kruisheren Hotel in Maastricht is part of the re-cycling phenomenon of the European cities urban structures, a very popular phenomenon, especially in the Netherlands. As in many other similar locations, the stake of the design is the striking contrast of proportions and materials between the old and the new.
Built almost at the same time as the establishment of the Walachian feudal state, the necropolis of the first Basarabs, headquarters to an alleged metropolitan, but also the place of some relics venerated by the Balkan orthodox, the Saint Nicolae Domnesc Church in Curtea de Arges could have had all the data of an authentic monumentum princeps, as are called all the churches that have the above mentioned features, if its decor was ostentatiously great, and the chronicles of those times would have kept on mentioning and praising it as the largest and most beautiful church in Walachia.
Proiect: arh. Henk Vos
Lumini si instalatii: Ingo Maurer
Text: Ioana Paunescu
Foto: www.designhotels.com, Design Hotels, Ingo Maurer

Techno club where Carl Cox and Laurent Garnier are Friday night regulars, Cocoon seems an enormous 3D projection. Although the materials are hardly futuristic (the architects used parquet, leather, Plexiglas, corian and glass), although the decorative leitmotiv is inspired by nature (cherry blossom), the club is, primarily, a space customized for techno music. Hallucinatory, unreal. The thousands of watts of the DJs are able to liquefy the walls, and the sound seems to come from everywhere, as if all space was one gigantic speaker.
Proiect: 3DELUXE
Text: Ioana Paunescu
Foto: Emanuel Raab/3DELUXE

The apartment located in a complex in Bucharest's Northern part just happens to have a double personality. Its two faces alternate discretely, with barely any interaction: a spectacular one, theatrical, refined, composed, and the other, more orderly, tamer, less extravagant. The carefully considered and solved details manage to keep the coherence of the whole discourse, the novelty arrangement also resulting from this functional and stylistic bi-dimensionality.
The generous space of the apartment allowed the architects to intervene freely in order to give a certain dynamics to the interiors and to mould them in the spirit of fluidity. Thus, where the space permitted it, the initial structures were modified and, in order to amplify the sensation of spatiality, the white was exploited to the maximum.
Proiect: Igloo Design, Bruno Andresoiu, Adrian Ciocazanu, Dana Tigan
Text: Viorica Buica
Foto: Serban Bonciocat