Identical Symmetric Houses at a Crossroad in Campulung-Arges

Recently one of my readers, Mr. Daniel Bobe, who is a student in Bucharest has very kindly offered to make, during the just passed Easter break, a series of architectural photographs in the area of his home town in Campulung Arges in Southern Romania. I was always fascinated by the architecture of Arges county, especially in the region of the first two capitals of the principality of Wallachia: Campulung and Curtea de Arges. It is a zone with a powerful local identity and rich architectural tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages.  Daniel has sent me a wealth of images from Campulung, which will make the object of a few blogposts. Herein is an interesting example of 1930s architecture that uses Neo-Romanian and Art Deco outlines and elements of a group of four (4) identical houses, two of which are shown in the above montage, situated at the corners of the same crossroad. Each of these buildings have in their turn a symmetrical design, which is especially suited for situations when the building is located on a street corner as is the case here. I like the architectural play of diverse symmetries in this set up: one in the simple symmetry of each individual house and another in the multiple symmetry of the group of the four identical edifices mirroring each other across the street corners, which brings dynamism and enlivens this otherwise mundane crossroad.

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I endeavor through this daily series of images and small articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

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If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.