Born in Caudéran, in 1938, Paul Andreu graduated from the “École des Ponts et Chaussées” and from Paul Lamache's architecture workshop at the “École nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts”. Right after graduation, he started working for the company that managed the Parisian airports and in 1979 he was appointed Architecture and Engineering Director. His spectacular projects, combining technical rigorousness with artistic design made him world famous. Among his most important works are the air terminal and the TGV-RER station in Roissy, Paris, the terminals in Abu Dhabi, Jakarta, Cairo, Dar-Es-Salaam, Brunei, Kansai, Nice, Bordeaux, as well as the French terminal of the Channel Tunnel. Also, Andreu created the well-known “Grande Arche de la Défense” after sketches by Otto von Spreckelsen, who won the official competition organized by the City of Paris.
Over the last years, Paul Andreu has planned several grand projects in the East.
Proiecte: Paul Andreu Architecte
Text: Viorica Buica
Foto: Paul Maurer, Li Wen, Paul Andreu Architecte

... as for the house on Dobrogeanu Gherea street, it tells the story of any house built in a neighborhood where the vernacular (to use a notion verging on anthropology) has made itself at home. Slightly mannerist in its modernism, the house, with a total surface of 500 sq m, took the shape of an L in order to line up on two streets. The scarcity of the plot and the indiscretion of neighboring buildings have transferred the intimate area - usually the garden - to the covered terraces. The two uneven sides of the plan have inspired an internal geometry that splits the floors unevenly, overcoming the monotony of clearly stratified homes. And since every house has a center, be it a built element or a function, here it is an empty space that binds together the two sides of the L, while granting them autonomy at the same time. The staircase makes the empty space accessible. The technical spaces - two living-rooms, the dining room, the bedrooms and junior area fill the two volumes logically, creating differentiated relations around the staircase.
Proiect: Artline, arh. Radu Teaca
Colaboratori: arh. Tiberiu Nica, arh. Peter Marx
Text: Luiza Zamora
Foto: Peter Marx, Liviu Fabian, Radu Teaca

The Jacuzzi on the building-top terrace may be filled up upon request. Filled up with ice. Champagne will be quite in place floating among the sea of ice-cubes, and if caviar doesn't feel comfortable in the company of fizzy, it may well pair up with the transparent vodka. This is not part of some studio scenario, but part of the Antalyan reality - an incredibly white design hotel at the foot of the Taurus Mountains, overlooking the Mediterranean.
The story might begin with a zoom on the bowl in which colorful fishes swim until a remote control freezes their movement. The next take could be about the instructions on how to use water taps in the bathroom. Only after acquiring enough knowledge to turn water on may the story move on to the multi-colored lights aimed at taming the ubiquitous white that melts details and conquers every nook and corner of the space.
Proiect: Eren Talu
Text: Luiza Zamora
Foto: www.designhotels.com