In 2004, given the incipient tourist activity in Croatia, the Zadar Port Authority, with the support of the Municipal Government, decided to undertake the reconstruction of that segment of the seafront and equip it as an arrival jetty for the cruise ships. And so the ’stone vessel’ would be rescued from negligent municipal oblivion and become the gateway to the city. This new arrival point made clear the need for a marine parade that would resolve the route to the city. But the place would not have a merely vestibular function, exclusively aimed at receiving tourists; the citizens of Zadar had to definitively make it theirs.
Finished in 2005, the new arrival jetty for the cruise ships occupies the far north-western tip of the peninsula with a large corner platform where the marine parade that follows the south-western shore begins. It is at the confluence of the platform and the parade that the sea organ extends along a seventy metre front. The solution adopted consists of resolving the meeting with the water gradually, by means of a flight of broad white marble steps that go down beneath the waves. The steps are made up of seven parallel flights, each one ten metres wide. The seven flights are juxtaposed in such a way that at each change of flight there is a difference of one step; that means that the steps both at the junction with the parade and at the water’s edge the flights present a staggered silhouette.

Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) shelters an eclectic collection of objects belonging to civilizations outside Europe, as well as a collection of minerals and prehistoric fossils. The bases of the museum were set at the beginning of the last century, following the Beaux Art tradition of a rectangular master plan with two courtyards bordered by galleries. The western wing was built in 1914 – a three storey building faced with brick, with decorations inspired from the Venetian Renaissance. In 1933 were added the eastern wing and the middle corridor, conceived in an Art Deco language, with Romanic and classical decoration. These two new elements formed an H-shaped plan. The symmetry of the original architecture was altered between 1978 and 1984, when the two courtyards were replaced by two buildings, leaving the middle corridor between them. The two buildings were made of exposed concrete; the southern wing enclosed offices, while the northern – three terraced storeys, for galleries.
Libeskind demolishes the northern terraces, applying an expressionist volume between the buildings raised in 1914 and 1933. This new 16,000 sqm addition accommodates the main entrance and the reception areas, three levels of galleries, a restaurant and shops, and it partially restores the original concept of symmetry by including an atrium. The cost of the extension and renovation of some existing parts of the museum was 256 million CAD, of which 135 million CAD were spent for the new wing.

In the context of an ever-growing density of new buildings, few architects get the chance of designing without worrying about the urban restrictions or the imposed respect for the - often doubtful in quality - neighboring front. Both an opportunity and a challenge, the choice of the natural setting for a holiday residence opens the way for a perhaps forgotten language: in the shade of a walnut tree, on a hilltop, the house designed by architect George Balan benefits from spectacular panoramic views. Situated at the entrance in the Talea village, near the city of Breaza, the site also benefits from the lack of other constructions in its immediate vicinity. The architectural concept is based precisely on the dialogue created between the newly defined spaces and the existing setting, emphasizing concepts like simplicity, warmth, discretion and the natural.
With a built surface of only 90 sqm, the volume is relatively compact, but not in the least ordinary - the openings, the rectangular cuttings of various sizes and the stone boarded secondary volume, emerging from the plan of the facade, offer the ensemble a special dynamism. The composition, with straight lines and well defined edges is emphasized through the choice of local materials for the finishes: wood and stone, making the insertion even more discreet.

If there was a top ten most non-conformist architectural practices in Romania, Dinoiu & Pop would definitely fit on the list: their multiple interests, age difference, intense collaboration with representatives of the art world, interest in strictly conceptual, but also commercial projects are features that define them at the time being, along with their collaborations with other Romanian architects. This month, the igloo guest is architect Dan Dinoiu, who graduated from the "Ion Mincu" University of Architecture in 2000.
"[...]the university prepares us for the finished and flawless project. In a way, this exercise is not to our advantage, as it brings us close to a limited, strange, "safe" architectural expression and doesn't stimulate personal creativity when it comes to programs and approaches. It brings us close to a "soft" architecture, with a borrowed language, a sort of re-facade, or we should enter the area of hard modernism, of re-architecture." (Dan Dinoiu)

Partially hidden behind the rich vegetation of the surrounding garden, the Melik House, at 22 Spatarului St., is one of the lesser known treasures of the city of Bucharest. Even without knowing the building's history, one may suspect its age from the very first step one takes inside the courtyard, and then inside the house, descending the two steps that separate it from the current street level. The connoisseurs know that this is one of the few 18th century buildings still standing in Bucharest, built around 1760 by an unknown architect.
This building houses the Theodor Pallady Museum, re-opened recently - in July - after the works of restoration that lasted a little over six months. Now, the garden, the house and the art collection donated to the Romanian state by Serafina and Gheorghe Raut at the end of the 1960s can be visited again. Doubtless, next to the artworks, one of the Museum's attractions is the house itself - the oldest example of civilian architecture in Bucharest. The building's restoration also represented a welcome occasion for reconditioning the artworks, that can now be admired in their full splendor. The house and art collection complete each other beautifully, turning the Museum into a place where one always returns for its atmosphere and quiet charm. If one visits the Museum during the warm season, the first impression is that of discovery, the moment when the white facade reveals itself behind the luxurious vegetation of the garden. Then, one notices new details: the tiled roof, the rich cornice, the wide chute, the first floor balcony, enclosed with windows, the wooden portico beneath, an excellent shelter from the sun on a hot day.