THE NEIGHBOURS THOUGHT IT WAS A SCIENCE LAB
When one of the first modern houses was built in Bucharest, “the neighbors thought it was a science lab.” These were the first reactions noted in an interview of that time. The return of the Avant-garde from abroad during the 1920, transformed and shaped the city of Bucharest as we know it today. Being influenced by different modern trends such as Art Deco, Bauhaus or under the influences of Italian fascist architecture, the architects were open to share visions, perspectives and exchanged ideas about modernism. My project deals with the modern Villa constructions with a particular focus at the intersection of these styles, showing how different solutions and ideas migrated from one trend to another. The Villa’s speak more about a fragile time in the architects’ careers, when such buildings offered them and their clients the opportunity to experiment combining the tenets of modernism and their own personal points of view. Nowadays most of the modern buildings are under heritage preservation. Although having this status the buildings undergo heavy changes and one of the most common practice is the thermal insulation in which the façades are being plated with styrofoam. Through this process the houses are being uniformized and standardized, bringing all the architecture styles together under the same material. Thus, specific Art Deco façade elements are being covered, the once rounded balconies are transformed into corner shapes and of course the reduction of the initial materials which have given personality to the buildings are not visible anymore. Keeping in mind that these houses were built under the auspices of the Avant-garde times, unlike the architects who were experimenting and working on new concepts and prototype houses, the nowadays owners are forced to take such decision based on market economy and services which are further politically linked. The today appearance of these houses are the results of a concurrence of time with stray human impulses of successive destruction and rebuilding of adaptation and modification.
