I recently found and photographed another interesting instance of what I call “Art Deco apparent heights”, a beautiful optical impression of svelteness and stature achieved by the gifted inter-war Bucharest architects in their designs, despite the frequent unpromising limitations imposed by the diminutive plots of land available for construction in this perennially crowded city. That visual effect can be seen in the excellently designed round corner (streamline) balconies shown in the images bellow, the creation of the architect Jean Stefan Burcus, embellishing a small mid-1930s apartment block from the Dorobanti area of Bucharest. In September 2010 I documented on this blog another such interesting “apparent heights” case (click here to access the image) in a building designed by the Zilberman architectural bureau in 1935. I like the clever use of the “rule of three” peculiar to the Art Deco style, visible here in the number of balconies, their three stepped bottoms and the strips adorning the balcony fence. The first photograph is a black and white image, while the second one bellow is seen through a violet-green-orange gradient filter, resulting in a beautiful, in my opinion, modernist-like poster of the commercial advert of the 1930s era.
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I endeavour through this series of periodic 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 or selling a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing and transacting the property, specialist research, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.
Valentin Mandache, architectural historian 