Built space

THE OFFICE CLUJ

Principal author

VLAD GAIVORONSCHI

Architecture office

ANDREESCU & GAIVORONSCHI

Collaborators (team members)

C. Gavrilescu, D. Munteanu, A.K. Szabo-Catu, D. Damian, M. Ungur, A. Malaescu, A. Georgescu, B. Rat, S. Badescu

External collaborators

I. Andreca, M. Mosoarca, V. Gioncu, M. Niculescu, AGASI, INSTALDATA Cluj

Project year

2017

Location

CLUJ-NAPOCA, ROMANIA

Client

CLUJ BUSINESS CENTRE

Budget

43.000.000 €

Build surface area

100 437 mp

Project description

The Office Cluj, a “city within the city” office building ensemble recently finalized, has begun as an urban regeneration project for the brownfield plot left by the old textile industry “Someșul”, in the vicinity of Cluj-Napoca’s historic centre. As in most communist cities, this area became part of the industrial framework of Cluj-Napoca, which even now includes some leftover industries and factories. To the north of the site there still exists an old water channel, a small ramification of the Someș river while to the south there is the main boulevard and the main connection to the historic city centre, to the west. The whole ensemble is made of 3 parts developed in successive stages which form a small coherent city in the shape of a flat, cut out massive, penetrated by gateway streets, which reinterpret the existing typology of the historic part of the city, that of public gangways. Inside these covered streets, a number of urban scale works of art will be placed. The ground floor will offer a multitude of services, ranging from retail, coffee shops, restaurants to fitness spaces, public services and temporary exhibitions. The upper levels accommodate class A offices. The urbanity of this office complex is generated by the interpretation of the pedestrian route on the south/north axis, from the boulevard towards the channel, sequentially emphasized by the alternating 3 gateways and 2 atrium courtyards. Likewise, another generator is the public /open nature of the ground floor all along the entire perimeter and the two passages which connect the atriums to the west side. This comb-like solution offers a generous opening to the west side - where the lower parts of the building are - thus allowing a much better lighting from that direction. The Office Cluj ensemble, at an urban scale, has evolved into a small “city within the city”, penetrated by three main gateways that connect the interior courtyards and urban plaza, all of this allowing both for a generosity in favor of the public space and an emphasis on semi-public and private spaces. At a larger scale, in which the city of Cluj offers a particular silhouette from the surrounding hills, the ensemble is perceived as a relatively flat landscape unit, with a dominant horizontal stratification. Proiect: The Office Architect: Vlad Gaivoronschi Colaborator: arh. Catalin Gavrilescu, arh. Dan Munteanu, arh. Alexandru Malaescu ,arh. Alina Georgescu ,arh. Mihai Ungur ,arh. Andreea Katalin Szabo, arh. Dan Damian, Bogdan Rat Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania Program: Office Client: Cluj Business Centre Structural engineering: s.c. H.I. STRUCT s.r. Building period: 2013-2017 Built area: 100 437 mp Fotografie : Ovidiu Micsa, Catalin Hladi, Cosmin Dragomir

Text description of the author

S.C. ANDREESCU & GAIVORONSCHI is today one of the prestigious reference points in the Romanian contemporary architecture. A series of projects and edifices obtained recognition in the last twentyfiveyears . Among the over 40 national and international distinctions, the most important are: The European Award for Steel Construction ECCS in 1997; Nominated for The Mies van der Rohe European Architecture Award , Barcelona, in 2008 and 2012, Shortlisted at WAF - World Architecture Festival , Barcelona, in 2010 and Berlin in 2016, winner prize at German Design Awards 2018; Longlisted by the jury for WAN Awards 2011 – Public buildings sector (World Architecture News.com) and 2012 – Residential sector (World Architecture News.com). It’s main projects are to be found on important websites as WORLD BUILDINGS DIRECTORY – World Architecture Forum, OPEN BUILDINGS, TOP BOX DESIGN, ARCHIDAILY, ARCHITIZER, FRESHOME and were exhibited at the International Architecture Biennial in Venice in 1991 and 1996, and also in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Budapest ,Leipzig, Thessaloniki ,Szeged, Vienna, Istanbul, Bruxelles, Tokyo, Singapore, etc..

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