Tag: Modernist Style

Corner-inside Modernist staircase

Valentin Mandache
Corner-inside Modernist staircase, late 1930s apartment block designed by arch. R. Glasberg, Dacia area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The above photograph shows an interesting solution for placing the staircase of a modernist building, which had to use a difficult shape plot of land, facing a small courtyard filled with other packed together Art Deco and Modernist style apartment blocks, in Dacia area of Bucharest. The edifice was designed by architect R. Glasberg, dating from the late 1930s, showing his talent in an era without computer aided design, when he had to rely solely on imagination, experience and good training. The corner-inside staircase is not only a practical solution, but also a decorative one, full of meanings as it resembles a column, in my opinion inspired from the totemic poles of Romanian peasant art. In fact at the time when the building was designed, the famous Endless Column sculpture created by Constantin Brancusi was being erected in the town of Targu Jiu in south west Romania and is not excluded, given the fame and impact of Brancusi’s art in Romania, that it influenced Glasberg in choosing his staircase design presented here.

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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 Contact page of this weblog.

1970s Romanian Modernism

Valentin Mandache

Romania has seen its last strokes of quality architecture during the 1970s, when many of the talented inter-war generation architects were approaching the end of their professional life and their pupils were worthy followers of their masters. The subsequent decade marked the heightening of Ceausescu’s personal dictatorship to Orwellian levels, when the country was saddled with megalomaniac industrial and public architecture projects like the infamous House of the People palace, which today houses the Romanian parliament, allegedly the second largest building in the world. That crass political expediency, very similar with that of the North Korea, at the expense of quality and professionalism marked a terrible deterioration of the architectural profession in Romania, a situation from which has not yet recoverd even now, two decade after the fall of the communist dictatorship. I sometime encounter architecturally notable post-war modernist buildings during my fieldwork assignments throughout the country, which generally fit the rule that were designed and built before 1980 – ’82 (when Ceausescu’s totalitarianism finally griped the society to all levels). One such encounter is the building presented bellow from the city of Campina in southern Romania, dating probably from the late 1970s. Its hallmark is the well designed doorway with a very bold concrete awning, like the ascending path of a jet aircraft. The edifice is now empty and left unmaintained, an indication sign that its future is grim. Many such good examples of post-war modernist architecture are now slowly disappearing from Romania’s built landscape, being replaced by coarsely designed architectural concoctions, products of the rapacious real estate speculation that has engulfed Romania in the recent.

Romanian 1970s modernist architecture, Campina (©Valentin Mandache)
Romanian 1970s modernist architecture, Campina (©Valentin Mandache)
Romanian 1970s modernist architecture, Campina (©Valentin Mandache)
Romanian 1970s modernist architecture, Campina (©Valentin Mandache)

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

***********************************************

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.

Modernist Art Deco style apartment building

Valentin Mandache
A well proportioned modernist Art Deco style apartment building dating from late 1930s, Popa Soare area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The well designed building from the above photograph features an Art Deco style with modernist features, popular in the late 1930s. The modernist features are represented by the stern rectangular outlines of the building and the use of concrete and iron as main construction materials. The Art Deco is embodied by structural elements such as the staircase tower or the usage of the “rule of three” in the number of floor levels and or that of the street fence beams, etc. Bucharest contains a fair number of such fascinating borderline design buildings, such as in an example that I documented at this link. In the particular case of this apartment house, the typology of the design is probably Italian, a product of an Italian architectural bureau or of a Romanian architect influenced by the Italian school of architecture of that time. Italy had a strong cultural influence in Romania during the inter-war period and many Italian building firms and architectural bureaus were active in the country throughout that era. I have documented that fascinating connection in some previous articles, such as here or there (click the links for access).

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

***********************************************

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.

Modernist Late-1930s House in Bucharest

Valentin Mandache
Modernist design house, Bucharest (Valentin Mandache)
An attractive example of late 1930s Modernist design house with a touch of Art Deco elements like the doorway style or the grooves at the base of the façade wall, etc. Popa Soare area, Bucharest. (©Valentin Mandache)

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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.

***********************************************

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.

Daily Picture 20-Jan-10: Inter-War Modernist Style Country Villa

Valentin Mandache
A well balanced and remarkable modernist style design of a 1930s, Teleorman county, Wallachia. (©Valentin Mandache)

The early 1930s, immediately after the Great Depression, were very productive years for the Romanian modernist architects. Bucharest is the place that gathers many of their master-works, but these can also be found in smaller towns or in the countryside, such as the above villa which I photographed in May last year, SW of Bucharest. It has replaced an earlier country mansion built at the end of c19th in a style inspired from the French architecture of the time. I was not able to find who was the architect, but the design is grass roots Romanian modernism in  the manner of the classic works of produced by the great architect Henriette Delavrancea-Gibory (see especially her Black Sea shore villa examples): rectangular volumes, enlivened by arches and columns (derived from the Neo-Romanian order), oblique roof profiles and small ornaments. Now the villa is renovated by local owners, who have altered or replaced many of its original features in an amateurish manner, using ordinary DIY stock products, a fate shared by an increasing number of period properties throughout Romania.

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

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating 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.