REPUBLIC OF ARCHITECTS

HISTORY
The republic began its activity in 2008, even if it was established in the previous year. Republic of Architects is a partner-based office emerging out of a collaborative effort to tackle contemporary architectural, design and urban issues. They chose the name – Republic of architects – ambiguous, idealist, however official: a professional seriousness masked under a slightly self-ironical name. The initiators have different educational background: some of them are focused on issues concerning the town planning and city, other of matters specifically for social houses etc. Some of them have a more theoretical profile, other a more applied one. Before collaborating with the Republic, each of the members collaborated with local offices on certain types of projects, where they gained specific experience and where they connected with certain types of specialists. 

SPECIFIC

Apart from the rehabilitation of the valuable elements of the interwar apartment and the inevitable technical upgrades, the project looked for answers to two questions - one of a practical nature, the other more poetical.

The first issue was to find a furnishing solution that would meet the requirements of an architecture studio and invent storage areas. For this the answer was to build custom made furniture, designed to follow the irregularities of the walls. On the other hand, the project puts the height of the rooms to use by conceiving a volumetric frieze whose depth becomes the much needed storage areas.

The second question was how to imagine a wall finishing that would simultaneously meet four demands: to be remarkable, to illustrate the studio’s profile, to keep costs to a minimum and not to constitute applied decoration.

This led to the idea of not adding the final finishing layer to the walls (the plaster coating and the paint). The intent was to suggest a work in progress, a building site, and to reveal the qualities of the space itself, before being hijacked by the dresses it may wear, before its potential to become something else was used out.

 

Situated on the streets that open at East from Calea Floreasca whilst descending into crossing the lakes, the building dwells six apartments, on four levels. Located on a corner – at the junction between Stroe Postelnicu and Rachmaninov street – the building’s blind walls are on the verge of the site. Six out of seven apartments share the same level, while the remaining one occupies the entire ground floor. Despite it being finalised in 2014, the project succeded an initial solution based on future expectations of spatial standards for buildings that would develop in the North area of the city. The former idea was reconsidered starting with 2010 and developed into the final resolution of having two apartments per level, soon before the structure had been completed. Therefore, the main issue was to find the boundary between the two apartments while preserving and bringing as few alterations as possible to the structure. Furthermore, the facades were designed according to the adjusted interior. The facades open up towards East and South, providing light even for the most remote corners of the apartment. The ventilated facade not only emulates the ethos behind the interior arrangement, but is also a response to the site’s constraints by turning on the narrow elevation, thus highlighting the corner. The same corner, together with the main entrance, shelter on the ground level gardens that act as a buffer between the public and private area.

 

MoMi is a modular dwelling unit designed for living as much as possible outside the house itself. By its condensed form, MoMi occupies as little space as possible in order to foster delight of nature and connection to the space around. The garden becomes the board where the great living game happens, with specific mobile furniture and some more static objects, like MoMi living units for toys. As such, for the main exhibition of Romanian Design Week 2014 MoMi was both an installation pointing to a garden outside of itself and a teaser for what the visitors encountered when they went to see the collateral event that stages the real-life object in its intended surroundings: imagine a garden with trees in blossom, where you can sleep beneath an acacia or read under the moonlight. Imagine a home in the garden.

 

For Romanian Design Week 2013, MoMi was presented through a scale-model and its idea represented by a piece of garden furniture: both the model and the bookcase/storage «Plai_OI» were displayed in the garden of the Știrbei Palace. It created a special area to enjoy plants and the space around them. It was used as furniture to sit on or as storage for different objects and it received appreciation for the design that incorporated natural-growing elements. About 300 leaflets advertising MoMi, the living unit, and the concept of living in the garden were distributed. As advertised in the printed material both MoMi and Plai_OI are a commentary on how we consume private and public space. The transformation they call for places the design/architecture user in a position where they have to be aware of the choices they make in their daily life and the way they consume space taken from nature and/or public space. The project is realised with the support of EKERO Concept, d’or by Roxana Davidescu, Holver.