polimasa is an object developed, since 2012, within and for our office that easily transcends its boundaries by becoming both the center of a dining or conference room. It explores the possibility of creating a structure composed of only diagonals - the empty space present in a classic, four-legged, frame structure suporting most tables. The resulting polygonal node structure is paired with an elliptic table top, making the table subject to a triangles meet ellipse dialectic. The shape of the tabletop creates a new set of relatonships amongst the people sharing moments around the table.

polimasa consists, thus, of 2 main elements: 

[1] The ellipse-shaped table top can be built out of a large array of materials such as various species of hardwood, stone, glass, steel and the entire range of solid surface materials. The table top is supported by a 

[2] performant spatial polygonal node structure, wheing only 4.45kg, consisting of 20 cylindrical baguettes, only 20mm in diameter, with hemispherical heads and variable lengths, made out of various species of hardwood. The baguettes are connected by 9 three-dimensional steel sheet nodes, 4 of which, at the base, are provided with a height adjusting system. The spatial polygonal node structure gives the table lightness, elegance and flexibility.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Eszter Szoke, Gloria Gagu, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Madalina Sasa, Adrian-Ovidiu Bucin, Adrian-Ioan Urda

Collaborator[s]: AM+PM, Florin Magda, Furnimobile, Mobimpex

Design Year: 2012-2017

Status: Completed

Material[s]: Hardwood, steel sheet

Technique[s]: Hand crafting and CNC milling

Manufacturer: AM+PM

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: YWP -Your work in pictures / Pavel Curagău

Logo Cups is a local product aimed at a global audience, a generic product and at the same time, through the deboss technique, highly personal and identity-driven, a vessel that caries, not only coffee, but also meaning and values. A product mature and confident enough to be showcased at World of Coffee fair in Copenhagen and around the world.

But how and in which form? Which furniture element best mediates human interaction with coffee (cups)? Although probably obvious, the answer did not come easily: a table. But not just any kind of table - a table with a plisse top, a table resembling a museum display stand, a table inspired by art pedestals, a design object that does not compete with that which exhibits but rather enhances it.

The table is inspired by the traditional folk attire of the village of Sic, located near Cluj-Napoca, as well as by archaic Transylvanian architecture details like dove tail joints. Thus, the object stands out for its "glocal" character, with the same references paradoxically found both in Romanian vernacular architecture and in traditional attire and accessories as well as in cultures spanning from western Europe to the far East.

The pedestal consists of two main elements: the plisse tabletop intended for displaying the cups and its base. The latter is equipped with three storage compartments and designed so that the joints of the elements produce as minimal visual noise as possible - a prism with three doors with concealed handle grips, each opening a storage compartment, made out of oak veneered MDF panels. The plissé consists of 28 solid oak strips finger jointed, set at a 45-degree angle. The space created between two successive strips allows for optimal display of coffee (and tea) cups, highlighting Logo Cups trademark debossing technique. Both end elements of the plisse feature Logo Cups and Vitrus branding.

The black stain and oil finish transforms the display stand into a full fledge art pedestal, whose details become the backdrop of Logo Cups products.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Iulia Stoichita, Diana Veress-Canta

Collaborator[s]: Atelier Lignum

Design Year: 2024

Status: completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2024

Gross area: -

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: YWP - Your work in pictures

In 2021, during an interview about our project, Viila Cheia, Anamaria declared, “…because thrifty people never rest on their laurels, Iosif and Laura are envisioning new places to delight your soul and enchant your eyes, places to which we shall also contribute our expertise and all of our heart.”

The new project reflects the desire of Laura and Iosif to continue the story that began with Viila Cheia and to add on to a space that honors tradition while embracing contemporaneity.Three years later, ateliercetrei is pleased to present LIV House, a new addition to Iosif and Laura’s property in the village of Cheia.

Since Viila Cheia began as a singular project, a guesthouse in an orchard, and not as part of a complex or ensemble, the main challenge for LIV House was how this new building would harmoniously integrate into the existing space.

It was to engage in a dialogue with the guesthouse and the orchard on one hand, and with the village on the other. In this regard, the choice of location within the orchard represented one of the main challenges of the project.

The chosen site is located close to the entrance from the village, in an area with a natural slope and a plateau in a clearing that opens towards the entire orchard and the sun all throughout the day. The house envelops itself around this space, that is at present the living room, unfolding along the natural slope of the land.

The rules that guided the project were natural and authentic: adaptation to the natural slope and the connection of most interior spaces with the orchard, the creation of an interior-exterior transition space inspired by a traditional porch, the use of local construction materials, the form of the traditional house volume.

All of these, along with Laura and Iosif’s attention to detail, have given rise to a contemporary place deeply rooted in archaic traditional values: a “house in the orchard.”

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Nicoleta Simina, Anamaria Lazar, Marius Indrei, Catalin Popa

Collaborator[s]: Top Proiect, GradInstal

Design Year: 2021-2023

Status: completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2023

Location: sat Cheia, Romania

Gross area: cca. 231 sqm

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: YWP - Your work in pictures

The project unfolds the transformation of a 35 sqm apartment - located in an early 20th century building in Cluj -Napoca - in 2 studio apartments. Due to the so-called successive modernization interventions, the project ambition has become the spatial and functional optimization through bespoke pieces of furniture. Two custom-made steel loft beds each covers an area dedicated to the kitchen. The latter is adapted to the dimensions of each room. In the generous one, an island kitchen - covered in ceramic tiles - is configured, surrounded by a storage area and a study. The loft bed ladder connects and supports the desk and bench which becomes the first step of the ladder. In the less generous room, the kitchen furniture is defined by a birch veneer backsplash and a ceramic tiles countertop. The loft bed ladder supports, with the help of the wardrobe, the bench. A set of MaNoOtTa take on the roles for which they were created - coffee/tea tables and stools - being able to serve several functional scenarios with help from their accessories - cork pillows and trays. The materials, textures, colors, details and formal language unite, but at the same time differentiate the two studio apartments united by a small vestibule with 4 filomuro doors covered, for both acoustic and aesthetic reasons, in cork tiles. The result is a cork ‘punch’ that packs some cool white door handles announcing the structure of the tiny, soon to be available for rent, apartment: two studios with loft beds sharing a bathroom.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Diana Canta, Daniela Elena Vieru, Adriana Paula Panturu, Diana Pruteanu

Collaborator[s]: Florin Magda, AM+PM, Furnimobile, Mobimpex, Robert Denes, Alin Mija, SuperTechMaterials

Design Year: 2021-2023

Status: completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2023

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area: cca. 35 sqm

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: YWP - Your work in pictures

Cross is a sideboard that pays homage to modern and late-modern sideboards through the simplicity of its shape, its materials and its textures. It has, however, a dynamic feeling to it given by the arrangement of the oak veneer on the drawers’ fronts, doubled by the zig-zag-ing movement of the fronts. In fact, the fronts are the characteristic and distinctive element of the sideboard and, due to their dynamics, they manage to impose their personality to the whole piece of furniture, managing thus to become more than just simple fronts. They 'hug' the sideboard conveying the idea of​dynamics to its sides. The 45° angle joint of the 'hug' provokes a geometric reaction in the top and bottom countertops as well as in the middle drawers - a set of geometric cuts similar to that of precious stones.

It can be filled with jewelry and fashion accessories in the bedroom, books, decorative objects in the living room and, why not, tableware in the kitchen.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Victor-Ioan Stefan

Collaborator[s]: AM+PM, Empero by MobiProd

Design Year: 2019-2020

Status: Completed

Material[s]: Hardwood, MDF, veneer, steel sheet

Technique[s]: Hand crafting and CNC milling

Manufacturer: AM+PM

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: YWP - Your Work in Pictures

The project unfolds the transformation of an apartment situated in a 1930s provincial Secession building. The minimally invasive intervention proposes the preservation of any and all original elements, the reconstruction of those damaged beyond repair or replaced, followed by the construction of a contemporary reality in permanent dialogue with the said elements.

The result is an identitary space formed by a succession of rooms with specific functions, unified by the black stained hardwood floor, bordered by white walls outlined by the exposed wiring and cork and marble paneling, connected by the original or remade carpentry and suspended luminaries adapted to the destination, scale and furnishings of each room. The eclectic selection of furniture pieces, comprising inherited pieces, ateliercetrei creations and iconic pieces enforce the main idea of ​​the project: a house that constantly reminds us where we come from, who we are and what our aspirations are.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Adrian-Ioan Urda, Anamaria Lazar, Diana Canta

Collaborator[s]: Practic Construct, Furnimobile, AluKönigStahl, EcoLedLight Solutions, Energolux

Design Year: 2019-2021

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2021

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area:  94 sqm

General Contractor: -

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: YWP - Your Work in Pictures

… coming soon

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Anamaria Lazar

Collaborator[s]: 

Design Year: 2022

Status: Project

Location: Simleul Silvaniei, Romania

Gross area:  198sqm

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

… coming soon

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Georgiana Cobuz

Collaborator[s]: 

Design Year: 2022

Status: Project

Location:  Bodrog, Romania

Gross area:  214sqm

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

The Weiss Palace is a historic building in the center of Timisoara, in Piața Victoriei, built in 1921 by the Arnold Merbl firm in an eclectic style for the Weiss family, according to the plans of Adalbert Szladek. The pediment was redesigned by the architect László Székely.

Our proposal for this loungewear and underwear concept store was driven by the company’s ethos: comfort and rest. Thinking of rest we went back to the ancient and wise Sandman as well as to Sleep himself... But not the Sleep one normally imagines.… 'like a breeze, with angelic wings?' Rather as imagined by Victoria Patrascu and drawn by Agnes Keszeg, 'big, round and fat. As soft as cake's dough. With an oval head and two small eyes, with poppy flowers, linden and verbena locks in stead of hair. When he appears, a sweet smell of sandalwood lemming fills the space, much like the smell of an old shady closet filled with freshly ironed linen.' As such our proposal divides the space in different dream worlds separated by textile curtains that are big, round and soft... features borrowed by the custom made furniture pieces as well as by the catalogue ones... Moreover our project addresses the visual as well as the tactile and olfactive senses trying to induce a state of comfort and rest from the moment one crosses the threshold of the store.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Anamaria Lazar, Gloria Gagu

Collaborator[s]:

Design Year: 2022

Status: Competition

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Timisoara, Romania

Gross area:

General Contractor:

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

… coming soon

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Diana Pruteanu

Collaborator[s]: 

Design Year: 2022

Status: Project

Location:  Faget, Romania

Gross area:  210sqm

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

MaNoOtTa is a piece of very versatile furniture that can furnish both tiny and spacious homes as well as office spaces. Its cylindrical shape helps it easily relate to any of the said environments.

MaNoOtTa starts by being a stool... but not just any stool... oh no... a rocking one. So it is a rebel right from the beginning.. it fights the conventionally static nature of traditional furniture on multiple levels.

It can easily be moved around as it is not very heavy and it also rocks. The rocking movement, beside making it a very fun object, helps a lot in making it suited for its second role... ottoman. For both its ottoman and stool roles MaNoOtTa is relying on help from its cushions. The latter come in two versions: 7cm thick cork as well as upholstered ones in both textile and leather.

Once removed the cushions allow the upper 'lip' detail of MaNoOtTa to surface. This detail helps create a concave surface that is perfect for protecting objects from accidentally falling down, much like a 'nest'. The 'nesting' place recommends MaNoOtTa for its third role - [bed]side table. The shape of the 'nesting' place dictates the shapes of MaNoOtTa's cushions as well as of a second family of accessories - trays.

The trays, help MaNoOtTa become a fully-fledged coffee table! If one MaNoOtTa proves to be too small for such a role, one can always add more. As the old saying goes, 'the more the merrier’.

A leather-upholstered rubber cord stops MaNoOtTa from tipping over and also makes its bottom part look as good, if not even better, than its upper nesting part. The leather-upholstered rubber cord mediates the contact with the floor for two other form-factors from MaNoOtTa's family: a 550mm in diameter [bed]side table and a 700mm diameter coffee table.

MaNoOtTa is made out of coated poplar plywood and comes in a wide range of colors, both standard and bespoke.

MaNoOtTa cushions come in a wide array of cork, leather and textile types and colors, both standard and bespoke.

MaNoOtTa trays come in coated aluminum in a wide range of colors, both standard and bespoke., brass and copper.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Eszter Szoke, Adrian-Ovidiu Bucin

Collaborator[s]: AM+PM, Mobimpex, Vlad Muscalu, Corkmarket, Riela, Vegmade

Design Year: 2015-2020

Status: Completed

Material[s]: Poplar plywood, leather, cork, aluminum sheet

Technique[s]: Hand crafting and CNC milling

Manufacturer: AM+PM

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Gigi Melinte, Ovidiu Micsa

Chapter 1: Roots / 1960'

Viila Cheia is, first and foremost, a true life story about values and paying them forward from one generation to another. Iosif spent most of his childhood in the orchard hosting the guesthouse, which he later inherited from his father, Iozef Vincze who was a painter and stone mason. Coincidentally he painted the house of Paul's grandparents, Simion and Susana Moldovan, sometime in the late 60s, event that sparked a funny story. Susana, a down-to-earth, entirely respectable lady, had never ridden a two-wheeled vehicle until Jozef took her on a motorcycle ride. The purpose was to show some of the work he had done and thus gain her trust as a client.

Chapter 2: Fondations / 2014

In 2014 Iosif and his wife Laura opened up to us about their desire to return to Iosif's childhood orchard. They wanted to build something on their inheritance, which could at its turn, be passed on to the next generations. A gust house... not too big and yet not too small, with a pantry for storing fruits, compotes, jams, vegetables and pickles, but especially wine... Because, just like their fore-bearers before them, they wanted to store food for winter as well as share it with others. The breathtaking view on Aries valley from the highest point on the northwest ridge of the 1ha orchard hosting Viila Cheia factors the shape of the 6 rooms guesthouse. The later takes, on the one hand, a bar shape plan that acts like a barrier destined to delay one’s encounter with the view, and on the other, a forced perspective cross section shape destined to amplify the impact of ones encounter with the said view upon entering the building. The living room separates and guides the three components of the program: guest bedrooms, the hosts' quarters and the mixed-use basement. The basement better anchors the volume onsite, being tucked in a pit from which gypsum and alabaster used to be exploited. Each of the five guests' bedrooms is south-east oriented and extends itself onto the orchard through a patio outfitted with a cosy nook. Cheia village's lack of identitary architectural repertoire forces the project to source its inspiration in the realm of archaic Romanian rural architecture. A contemporary volume dressed in traditional clothing; stone for the basement, wood and plaster for the ground floor and shingles for the roof. We wanted the house to incorporate values beyond those of traditional archaic architecture, to offer places where one can snuggle with a good book, enjoy a glass of wine, where you can listen to the 'birds and winds', where the fire is light in the evenings and where food 'tastes like rainbows' (@alina_filipoiu, 2021)

Chapter 3: Despair / 2015, 2016, 2017

The project went on to be twice declared eligible for EU funding, bun unfundable. Hope faded with each of the negative answers received from the Agency for Financing Rural Investments (AFIR). 2017 marks ateliercetrei's participation in an architectural competition that offered us the chance to focus on the values of the 'people of the earth' (Iorga, 1936), translating the character of Romanian villagers and is featured in a series of novels reflecting upon the wisdom of these peoples and their sense of proportions. This condition can be easily traced back to the essence of our culture, from the making of some of the most common objects to the shapes, sizes and choice of materials summing up the built environment. Our focus was to identify a method, much like we empirically did in 2014, that would allow us to create an almost instantaneous - Proustian like - type of connection to ones past through an architecture that has, apparently, no formal connection with that past and yet, manages to evoke it.

Chapter 4: hope / 2018

2018 marked the end of our wait as Iosif and Laura decided to start the project with personal funding. We used the opportunity to refine and apply the method we used in 2017. The term ekphrasis refers today to literary description of a work (Vrânceanu, 2015). Originally, however, it meant a 'detailed description' of any place, thing, person or experience. We were curious of what the outcome would be if, appealing to our own memories or literary descriptions of classic Romanian authors such as Ion Creanga, Liviu Rebreanu or Ioan Slavici, we would construct a contemporary reality that would trigger that Proustian-type connections to ones roots, even if its visual representation would be neither traditional, nor archaic. We maneuvered the project with this method from outside within, from architecture to objects, either catalogue or custom ones. Starting from the distribution of exterior finishings and claddings, to how rainwater is collected and drained, the shape of the patios - inspired by traditional porches - designed to link each room the orchard and to 'the heat of the village' (Rebreanu, 1920) all the way to the position of the triptych right above the headboard of each bed evoking the presence of faith, the three-legged tea/coffee tables, the lounge chairs and luminaires with stretched and braided cables and last, but not list, the hearth and 4m long table designed as social catalysts, construct the concept of the guesthouse... offering an almost archaic Romanian traditional rural experience in a contemporary note to tourists from around the world.

Chapter 5: re-Roots

Our grandparents and great-grandparents built their homes with their own hands, engaging the whole extended family. Following the example of their fore-bearers Iosif and Laura were completely involved in all onsite activities: tracing, laying the foundations and brick-walls, finishing the walls and floors or building the hearth. Amongst other Iosif was the head stonemason onsite while Laura brought us back on track whenever the situation required us to change architectural solutions. Our children, Toma and Olivia, accompanied us onsite and helped finish the hearth and were present when the Viila Cheia's lights were lit for the first time. 2020 came out of the shadow-cone the moment the pool was filled with water... Construction site visits became even more pleasant when as we got to gradually know Iosif's host talent... much to everyone's surprise he is also the cook of the guesthouse. And because this story is first and foremost, a story about life, its cyclicity and values and paying them forward from one generation to another, we asked for a little more patience and trust from our friends, in order to also design the guesthouse's logo. The stylized image of a round apricot tree is now embossed on coffee cups, embroidered on bathrobes and uniforms, becoming as much a part of this story as the hearth.

'And they lived happily ever after' should be the phrase that draws the curtain over this story that actually gets richer with the pages each visiting guest adds to it. It is interesting for us, as architects, to be a part of the way people experience their stay at Viila Cheia. It is one of the few projects where we have the chance to observe the post-occupancy mode not only of our clients, but through the nature and addressability of the program, of an ever increasing number of people. This process marks the parting with something we have worked on for more than seven years... but since a good master of the house never rests on his oars, Iosif and Laura are planning new places, places which we will help build, with our know-how as well as our hearts.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Adrian-Ioan Urda, Victor-Ioan Stefan, Adrian Ovidiu Bucin, Daniela Vieru, Diana Canta

Collaborator[s]: Top Proiect, Caloria

Design Year: 2014-2019

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2020

Location: Cheia Village, Cluj, Romania

Gross area:  505 sqm

General Contractor: Practic Construct - Iosif Vincze

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Ovidiu Micsa / ADMO Studio

Chapter 1: Roots / 1960'

Viila Cheia is, first and foremost, a true life story about values and paying them forward from one generation to another. Iosif spent most of his childhood in the orchard hosting the guesthouse, which he later inherited from his father, Iozef Vincze who was a painter and stone mason. Coincidentally he painted the house of Paul's grandparents, Simion and Susana Moldovan, sometime in the late 60s, event that sparked a funny story. Susana, a down-to-earth, entirely respectable lady, had never ridden a two-wheeled vehicle until Jozef took her on a motorcycle ride. The purpose was to show some of the work he had done and thus gain her trust as a client.

Chapter 2: Fondations / 2014

In 2014 Iosif and his wife Laura opened up to us about their desire to return to Iosif's childhood orchard. They wanted to build something on their inheritance, which could at its turn, be passed on to the next generations. A gust house... not too big and yet not too small, with a pantry for storing fruits, compotes, jams, vegetables and pickles, but especially wine... Because, just like their fore-bearers before them, they wanted to store food for winter as well as share it with others. The breathtaking view on Aries valley from the highest point on the northwest ridge of the 1ha orchard hosting Viila Cheia factors the shape of the 6 rooms guesthouse. The later takes, on the one hand, a bar shape plan that acts like a barrier destined to delay one’s encounter with the view, and on the other, a forced perspective cross-section shape destined to amplify the impact of ones encounter with the said view upon entering the building. The living room separates and guides the three components of the program: guest bedrooms, the hosts' quarters and the mixed-use basement. The basement better anchors the volume onsite, being tucked in a pit from which gypsum and alabaster used to be exploited. Each of the five guests' bedrooms is south-east oriented and extends itself onto the orchard through a patio outfitted with a cosy nook. Cheia village's lack of identitary architectural repertoire forces the project to source its inspiration in the realm of archaic Romanian rural architecture. A contemporary volume dressed in traditional clothing; stone for the basement, wood and plaster for the ground floor and shingles for the roof. We wanted the house to incorporate values beyond those of traditional archaic architecture, to offer places where one can snuggle with a good book, enjoy a glass of wine, where you can listen to the 'birds and winds', where the fire is light in the evenings and where food 'tastes like rainbows' (@alina_filipoiu, 2021)

Chapter 3: Despair / 2015, 2016, 2017

The project went on to be twice declared eligible for EU funding, bun unfundable. Hope faded with each of the negative answers received from the Agency for Financing Rural Investments (AFIR). 2017 marks ateliercetrei's participation in an architectural competition that offered us the chance to focus on the values of the 'people of the earth' (Iorga, 1936), translating the character of Romanian villagers and is featured in a series of novels reflecting upon the wisdom of these peoples and their sense of proportions. This condition can be easily traced back to the essence of our culture, from the making of some of the most common objects to the shapes, sizes and choice of materials summing up the built environment. Our focus was to identify a method, much like we empirically did in 2014, that would allow us to create an almost instantaneous - Proustian like - type of connection to ones past through an architecture that has, apparently, no formal connection with that past and yet, manages to evoke it.

Chapter 4: hope / 2018

2018 marked the end of our wait as Iosif and Laura decided to start the project with personal funding. We used the opportunity to refine and apply the method we used in 2017. The term ekphrasis refers today to literary description of a work (Vrânceanu, 2015). Originally, however, it meant a 'detailed description' of any place, thing, person or experience. We were curious of what the outcome would be if, appealing to our own memories or literary descriptions of classic Romanian authors such as Ion Creanga, Liviu Rebreanu or Ioan Slavici, we would construct a contemporary reality that would trigger that Proustian-type connections to ones roots, even if its visual representation would be neither traditional, nor archaic. We maneuvered the project with this method from outside within, from architecture to objects, either catalogue or custom ones. Starting from the distribution of exterior finishings and claddings, to how rainwater is collected and drained, the shape of the patios - inspired by traditional porches - designed to link each room the orchard and to 'the heat of the village' (Rebreanu, 1920) all the way to the position of the triptych right above the headboard of each bed evoking the presence of faith, the three-legged tea/coffee tables, the lounge chairs and luminaires with stretched and braided cables and last, but not list, the hearth and 4m long table designed as social catalysts, construct the concept of the guesthouse... offering an almost archaic Romanian traditional rural experience in a contemporary note to tourists from around the world.

Chapter 5: re-Roots

Our grandparents and great-grandparents built their homes with their own hands, engaging the whole extended family. Following the example of their fore-bearers Iosif and Laura were completely involved in all onsite activities: tracing, laying the foundations and brick-walls, finishing the walls and floors or building the hearth. Amongst other Iosif was the head stonemason onsite while Laura brought us back on track whenever the situation required us to change architectural solutions. Our children, Toma and Olivia, accompanied us onsite and helped finish the hearth and were present when the Viila Cheia's lights were lit for the first time. 2020 came out of the shadow-cone the moment the pool was filled with water... Construction site visits became even more pleasant when as we got to gradually know Iosif's host talent... much to everyone's surprise he is also the cook of the guesthouse. And because this story is first and foremost, a story about life, its cyclicity and values and paying them forward from one generation to another, we asked for a little more patience and trust from our friends, in order to also design the guesthouse's logo. The stylized image of a round apricot tree is now embossed on coffee cups, embroidered on bathrobes and uniforms, becoming as much a part of this story as the hearth.

'And they lived happily ever after' should be the phrase that draws the curtain over this story that actually gets richer with the pages each visiting guest adds to it. It is interesting for us, as architects, to be a part of the way people experience their stay at Viila Cheia. It is one of the few projects where we have the chance to observe the post-occupancy mode not only of our clients, but through the nature and addressability of the program, of an ever increasing number of people. This process marks the parting with something we have worked on for more than seven years... but since a good master of the house never rests on his oars, Iosif and Laura are planning new places, places which we will help build, with our know-how as well as our hearts.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Adrian-Ioan Urda, Victor-Ioan Stefan, Adrian Ovidiu Bucin, Daniela VIERU, Diana Canta

Collaborator[s]: Top Proiect, Caloria

Design Year: 2014-2019

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2020

Location: Cheia Village, Cluj, Romania

Gross area:  505 sqm

General Contractor: Practic Construct - Iosif Vincze

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Ovidiu Micsa / ADMO Studio

The project unfolds the desire of a young urban professional family to build a home in Gheorghieni, one of the many villages surrounding Cluj-Napoca. The later a bustling university city, the former a small village hidden behind a beautiful forest on a north-oriented slope with a very strong identitary architectural repertoire.

Efforts were thus directed at questioning the brief - building a home much like in a city suburb - in order to acknowledge the said architectural repertoire and produce a building that engages its context in its entirety from scaling it down through breaking it in volumes containing specific functional compartments to creating relationships between the volumes, their scale, their materiality, the spaces they generate, the way they are oriented to and from the sun and so on.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Adrian-Ioan Urda, Victor-Ioan Stefan

Collaborators: Inginerie Creativa, CSP Proiect Line

Design Year: 2018-2020

Status: Under Construction

Execution | Completion year: 2022

Location: Gheorgheni, Cluj County, Romania

Gross area: 239 sqm

General Contractor: TBD

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

The project rests on four conceptual pillars as follows: [1] facing the new reality in terms of how we conceive new workspaces that enable social and commercial human to human relationships, [2] sustainability as an intrinsic part of the building, [3] rhythm and structure as a reflection of the order characteristic not only to industrial buildings, and last, but not list, [4] the defining typology of industrial facilities and our ambition to see if we can bend that typology and create something new, that does not only respond to a brief and budget, but interprets that brief in order to add value and push the boundaries of what an industrial facility is and looks like.

The 4 conceptual pillars, in reverse order, are:

#typology: normally an industrial facility of sorts operates with 3 architectural programmes: gatehouse, office building and production facility. The ambition for this project was to simplify this scheme and bring under one roof the gatehouse and the office building creating thus a new typology that allows for possible future extensions when and if needed. This new typology is supported by the third conceptual pillar which is

#rhythm+structure: the chosen structural grid makes possible not only the said extension but also, through it being very widespread and so very economic in terms of implementation as well as maintenance costs. This structural grid is taken, by our architectural proposal, to an almost absurd level making it visible all through the facades of the building. Considering the possibility of expansion, the grid sort of imposes the way the building sits on its plot and thus operates with its other elements: parking lot, accesses - pedestrian, small and medium vehicles and trucks, loading platforms, water tank, and last but not list, emergency accesses and platforms for fire department vehicles and personnel.

#sustainability as an intrinsic part of the building is the second conceptual pillar. Aside the proposed orchard - that will not only help reduce the CO2 levels but help maintain an balanced local flora and fauna as well as create a pleasant microclimate that can increase air quality around the facility, the project proposes three other intrinsic sustainable architectural features like: [1] the extensive green roof system that complements the orchard in every aspect and offers a natural way to insulate the offices, and the [2] the Veranda and the Atrium. The later are transition spaces between the indoors and outdoors that concentrate most of the buildings glazing reducing thus direct contact with the sun and facilitating natural ventilation and, as such, reducing the amount of mechanical ventilation which in turn results in less equipments, less maintenance, less energy consumption and so on. Moreover the two spaces give the building a well deserved special entrance as well as enforce our fisrt conceptual pillar:

The #newnormal situation. We tried to imagine how office spaces will look like and how they will comply to the #newnormal… we imagined and designed these offices to give priority to processes such as, but not limited to, critical analysis, creativity, and innovation - processes that can only happen through direct human-to-human communication. Also they are directly connected, on the ground floor as well as on the first floor with the veranda and through it with the orchard.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Marius Indrei, Lorena Katona

Collaborator[s]: Qmeck works

Design Year: 2020

Status: Competition

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Sibiu, Romania

Gross area:  cca. 12.000 sqm

General Contractor: Conlan

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

coming soon…

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Diana Canta, Anamaria Lazar

Collaborator[s]:

Design Year: 2019-2020

Status: under construction

Execution | Completion Year: 2021

Location: Turda, Romania

Gross area: cca. 231 sqm

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

The project unfolds the remodeling of a 90s house according to the needs of a family living their lives between the diaspora and the country. One of the main drivers of the project was to create a backdrop for the social life of the family and its dynamics in their new home. The core of ​​the house thus resides at the intersection between the living room and the kitchen. The furnishing strategy of the two spaces allows for, if necessary, their merger, making the boundary between them almost imperceptible.

The interiors of the house are set apart by the simple yet elegant custom-made furniture, dominated by sober colors and textures: white (furniture, metal works, ceramic tiles), gray (exposed concrete elements, floors and furniture) and dark brown (upholstery, wooden and veneered furniture), perked up by the presence of colored furniture and decoration objects (the hanger, coffee / tea tables, upholstery, appliances, furniture accessories, climbing sockets or nightstands).

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Gloria Gagu, Adrian-Ovidiu Bucin, Adrian-Ioan Urda, Eszter Szoke

Collaborator[s]: Furnimobile, Betonia, Smart Loft, K-Glass, Flomar, Napoca steel

Design Year: 2016 / 2019

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2019

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area:  284 sqm

General Contractor: -

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: ateliercetrei, Ovidiu Micsa

The project unfolds the transformation of an unfinished house, designed for a stag, into a home for a young family. The former’s brief revolved around a one-bedroom house with functions such as a gym and a small spa while the latter’s brief aimed at morphing the fitness spaces into children's and guests’ bedrooms.

The challenge was to propose a type of intervention that reduces, through elimination, the existing structure to its volumetric essence and, later, to add functions and their corresponding volumes in the same spirit. The house thus becomes an 'apparatus' that mediates the transition from public space and public life to private space and private life being defined by its two main facades. The relation with the street is mediated through a facade dominated by a dent announcing the entrance... a ‘carved’ entrance with the purpose of announcing the warmth of the house. The relationship with the garden is mediated through a glazed facade that transforms the living room into an extension of the garden and vice versa.

This is achieved also through the furnishing concept: all fixed furniture elements (e.g. kitchen cabinets, panelled wall, bookshelves, office cabinets) are attached to the walls that lead towards the garden while the spaces in between are furnished with mobile furniture elements (e.g. sofa, armchair, dining table). The interiors thus revolve around the ample living room, a space that unfolds on two stories and thus intermediates the dialogue between the ground floor and the second floor as well as between the house and the garden. They are defined and dominated by large planes whose colors and textures drawn from the nature of the finishings: stone for the day ambients’ floors and bathroom walls, hardwood for the night ambients’ floors and doors and oak veneer for the pannelled wall and furniture. The 8 spherical luminaires composing the living room’s lighting scheme remind one of a park, underlining the blurred line between the garden and the home.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Eszter Szoke, Gloria Gagu

Collaborator[s]: Mobila Florenta, Mobimpex, Smart Loft, Tur Project Invest

Design Year: 2014 - 2017

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2017

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area:  246 sqm

General Contractor: M.C.R. Invest S.R.L., Imperial Comex

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: ateliercetrei,  Ovidiu Micsa

The project investigates the refurbishment and second resettlement of a group of four wooden Romanian traditional houses. The houses, originally built in one of Romania's most identitary regions, Maramures, were later resettled to the southwest, in Salaj, and are now to be relocated in one of Apuseni mountains most picturesque villages: Smida. 

The project revolves around an ethical question... how to dis-ambiguously resettle the 4 houses? How would one know that these houses didn’t originate in Smida and are not representative for the Apuseni mountains region...   

The construction element that ‘roots’ houses to the ground is the plinth... Typically, Romanian traditional houses from northwestern Transylvania have a rusticated stone plinth that roots them to the ground. The weight and texture of the said plinth together with the materials and finishes of the typical traditional Romanian houses transmit a sense of belonging, off ‘rooting’ to the ground, to the region. 

The project, therefore, approaches the four houses as museum exhibits. As such it proposes a different type of connection to the ground, a different type of plinth inspired by the ones used to display exhibits in museums around the world. Through its materiality, steel, and its configuration, much like a display tray, it manages to dis-ambiguously present the four new houses for what they are - resettled houses from a different region.

The four houses are carefully placed on the site in regards to its morphological particularities, existing vegetation and cardinal orientation so as to offer a maximum of intimacy while benefiting from the sun and scenery at the same time. The layout of each house respects the traditional two or three rooms layout infusing it with contemporary comfort. The disambiguation continues on the interior of the houses where contemporary elements meet traditional materials and techniques offering modern everyday comfort without diminishing the sense and authenticity of the rural escape.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Gloria Gagu, Adrian Urda

Collaborators: eng. Radu-Lucian Pop, CSP Proiect Line, eng. Lucian Axinte

Design Year: 2017-2019

Status: Building Permit

Execution | Completion year: 2020

Location: Smida, Cluj County, Romania

Gross area: ca. 370 sqm

General Contractor: TBD

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

Mol Fresh Corner Mobile bars are part of an expansion strategy of the Fresh Corner concept - the retail component of MOL gas stations that focuses on gastronomy and groceries - targeting music and film festivals as well as street food festivals. Our design thus draws its inspiration from street food culture and from design elements of the two wheels urban means of transport. Te bars are composed of two elements: a pill shaped bar and a steering mechanism.

The bar is built around a steel structure enveloped in beech baguettes and covered with a solid surface material countertop. It is fitted with built-in cabinets, all-around crash bars that also serve as handgrips for the built-in cabinets, functional two 26" 36-spoked wheels with whitewall tires, one functional chrome dynamo headlight and one custom-made branding lightbox featuring the MOL logo.

The steering mechanism features a functional handlebar complete with grips and a bike bell, an adjustable shading system composed of an umbrella that doubles down as a luminaire, and is fitted with a custom-made branding lightbox featuring the Fresh Corner logo.

The bar’s design, size and construction materials make it suitable for both outdoor and indoor use.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Victor Stefan

Collaborator[s]: Imagine Tact

Design Year: 2018

Status: Completed

Material[s]: Steel structure, Hardwood, Solid surface material

Technique[s]: Welding, Hand crafting and CNC milling

Manufacturer: Imagine Tact

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Oana Rednic

The project’s foothold rests on Farrell and McNamara’s (2017) argument that everyone has the right to benefit from architecture, whose role is to give shelter to one’s body and to lift one’s spirit. “A beautiful wall forming a street edge gives pleasure to the passer-by, even if they never go inside. So too does a glimpse into a courtyard through an archway, or a place to lean against in the shade or a recess that offers protection from the wind and rain. [...] We are interested in going beyond the visual, emphasising the role of architecture in the choreography of daily life. We believe these qualities sustain the fundamental capacity of architecture to nurture and support meaningful contact between people and place.” All of the above is made possible through architecture’s ability to affect one’s mind and elicit cognitive states characterised by powerful attentional effects, generating significant repercussions in one’s brain processes. The project thus builds around a fundamental neurobiological idea: human beings have a limited attentional capacity.

As of lately, architecture nevertheless—and somewhat unfortunately, to a certain extent—has to share one’s limited attentional resources with the conditionings of digital life. A product of the contemporary society and a combination of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and social media, the digital acts like a technological capsule detached from one’s “daily sensorial experiences” (van Ditmar, 2011). This detachment produces a series of consequences, the most notable of which is the blurring of the boundaries between humans, space, and technology (De Cauter, 2004). The result is, as van Ditmar argues, a saturation of one’s milieu and a diminishing of attentional resources that could otherwise be assigned to other people or the environment. Even though one’s digital life provides increased connectivity and immediacy, we must agree with van Ditmar when she argues that technological capsules make humans “more and more isolated not only from the people but also from the environment. In this sense, Paul Virilio points out that even with a growing urbanisation, this paradoxically takes people proportionally away from the immediate proximity relations.”

Our project’s ambition is therefore to raise awareness towards the fragility of inter-human and human-place connections in contemporary society and architecture, on the one hand, and, on the other, act as a spatial experiment. The project proposes a triptych spatial strategy as follows:

[1] Almost any space, whether public or private, is navigated horizontally with the “aid” of two of the most common architectural elements: the floor and the wall. The latter provides, as Koolhaas (2014) argues, structure and division of space and, as such, organises movement. Taking into consideration the literal sense of the 16th Venice architecture biennale theme, the project aims to free space by creating a “freespace” that avoids any and all space dividers separating the roof/ceiling from the ground/floor. The result is a simple rectangular free space.

[2] The free space is infinitely multiplied using floor-to-ceiling mirrors on all of the enclosing walls. The mirrors have a double purpose:

- to blur the boundaries of the physical space;

- to appeal to one’s narcissistic and increasingly individual social media alter-ego.

[3] Even though ceilings cover all indoor spaces, they do not necessarily help one navigate them, nor do they help one navigate outdoor spaces either, whether public or private. The project proposes an upsetting by creating a three-dimensional ceiling, much like an inverted abstract urban landscape whose purpose is thus to affect one’s attentional capacity and raise awareness of people and the immediate surroundings. This upsetting is achieved by implementing a set of uncomfortable ceiling heights, starting at 2.1m at the entrance and varying from as low as 1m to as high as 6.8m.

All of the three elements of the spatial strategy unify through colour, lighting concept, and text. As architects, by tradition, work with concrete materials, so does the project too: white coated plywood and stretch ceiling for the inverted abstract urban landscape, mirrors for the panelling of the existing walls, and rubber flooring for the floor—its all-white colour transforming the space into static interpretation of dynamic situations. All artificial lighting is realised through the stretch ceiling, while natural light will be guided in through the 6.8m high ceiling area that communicates with the skylights. Text flows clockwise, in one single row, starting from the volume that follows the entrance and delays one’s spatial perception, to propose an alternate spatial trajectory to free and ‘at will’ ones. As such, the visitor has two options upon entering:

[a] to scan a QR code (that redirects he or she to the project’s website where people can access all relevant information) and visit the project however he/she wishes; or

[b] to follow the pathway offered by the active lecture of the text.

When navigating the space, each of the two options leads to increased spatial awareness and an increased allocation of attentional resources to other visitors and the environment, due to the project’s capacity to create new circumstances, mediate interactions with/within free space, and promote its extension on a human level. The situation reflects Scalf and Beck’s (2008) affirmation that when “multiple neighbouring visual stimuli appear simultaneously, their representations interact in a mutually suppressive manner.”

Famous Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga (1936) called the inhabitants of the area between the Carpathian, the Danube, and the Black Sea “people of the earth,” alongside the “people of the sea” and “people of the steppes.” This trait translates the people’s character and appears in a series of novels that reflect the local people’s wise approach and their perfect sense of proportions. This condition is observable in the very form of our culture, from the “design” of the most commonplace objects to the shapes, sizes, and choice of materials that compose the built environment. As of lately, we witness a process of perversion and corruption of these formal elements due to an influx of unfiltered information, small goals, and an insatiable wish for uniformity. Even though, at first glance, there is nothing that would characterise the project as mirroring national perceptions, its attitude towards meaningful contact between people and place is what anchors the proposal in our culture and gives it poetic expression.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Gloria Gagu, Raluca Guranda, Diana Matei

Collaborators: Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, Oana Tiganea, Zsolt Nagy (SC Gordias SRL), Sabin Bors, Adrian Ovidiu Bucin, Adrian Urda 

Design Year: 2017-2018

Status: Competition 2nd place

Execution | Completion year: -

Location: Venice, Italy

Gross area: ca. 257 sqm

General Contractor: ateliercetrei

Text: ateliercetrei, Sabin Bors

Photographer[s]: -

The project unfolds a set of interventions aiming to overhaul one of Turda's main public transport stations, known as Materna, as well as its corresponding public space: the station's extended pedestrian area. The goal of these interventions is to transform the urban area, as found, into an attractive and dynamic public space all while attempting to reduce CO2 emissions. 

Located to the East, in one of Turda's main, albeit socially challenged, neighborhoods - Oprisani, the station and its extended pedestrian area draws its name form the adjacent 1980s commercial complex. The direct relation with the above-mentioned venue makes for a very dynamic and commercially active urban area, a feature to be reinforced through the project.

The set of interventions are structured in three main steps:

[1] Rethinking the bus station and parking facilities on the northern front of the site in order to increase the pedestrian area and, consequently, streamline the pedestrian traffic and accessibility of the public transport station. Each of the two facilities is equipped with charging stations for electrical vehicles according to the city guidelines for a 21st century urban transportation system.

[2] Increasing the quality of the pedestrian area and related green areas by rethinking the layout, replacing the existing cement based pavement with a natural stone one, adding trees to the green spaces, implementing new urban furniture and a set of retail kiosks meant to double down on the commercial character of the area, removing all existing fixtures and implementing new ticket sale points and machines, information systems, video surveillance systems, improved pedestrian signage and road safety systems, facilities for people with disabilities and so on.

[3] A new extended bus shelter structure comes to unite under its roof all the above mentioned interventions. The structure, inspired by architectural elements of the adjacent commercial complex, is formed by a zig-zagging canopy, spanning a little over 140m in length and 6m in width, rests on only 10 columns. Its purpose is to protect the bus station as well as part of the pedestrian area form the elements and to contribute to the safety of the neighborhood, through its video surveillance systems, as well as through its lighting concept.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Eszter Szoke, Gloria Gagu, Adrian Ovidiu Bucin

Collaborator[s]: Gordias, CSP Proiect Line, D&B Proiectare

Design Year: 2017

Status: Concept Design

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Turda, Romania

Gross area: 3967,72 sqm  

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: ateliercetrei

The 6 ‘Spaces for alternative art education at Tudor Jarda School of Art’ are part of a larger project which unfolds the refurbishment of a 1886 building with a ca. 1970s extension. The building which hosted up until 1886 the town’s Sugar factory was transformed, as part of a larger process aiming the modernization and enhancement of the city’s education system, in the city’s Juvenile Detention Center. The Center was organized according to the ‘family system’ and comprised three buildings: the administrative building, the school and chapel building and the 'families’ house’, occupied today by Tudor Jarda School of Art (cultural establishment under the patronage of Cluj County). The later was extended and suffered, through time, at least two major invasive and destructive interventions.

In order to keep up with its growth and ambitions the School needed to extend its educational offerings as well as the studios and auxiliary spaces. The program revolves around 6 spaces for alternative art education and content creation: Choreography studio: folk dance, Orchestra and jazz studio, Choreography studio: classic/modern/contemporary dance, Fashion studio, Painting studio and Graphics studio.  Considering the precarious state of the building our project aims to uncover as much of the historic building’s essence as possible and to adapt it to its new program and its beneficiary’s needs. The project allows, thus, the lecture and clear distinction between both the historical layers, and contemporary interventions, without creating ambiguities and distortions acting like an intergenerational dialogue between past, present and future.

The 6 spaces relate to each-other both horizontally and vertically and are similar to each other through their exposed structures: [1] exposed brick masonry and exposed historical mixed slab or the riveted and bolted metal structure for the ground floor spaces: Choreography studio: folk dance and Orchestra and jazz studio; [2] exposed brick masonry and exposed contemporary mixed slab for the first floor spaces: Choreography studio: classic/modern/contemporary dance and Fashion studio; [3] exposed roof structure composed of both reused and new wood. The spaces differ from each other through the elements and materials that are indispensable to the educational processes as well as their themed lighting schemes: [1] the hardwood oak floor, the mirrors, the blackboard like paint, barres and radiator masking/sitting furniture with a liniar lighting scheme subordinated to the steel beams of the historical mixed slab for the Choreography studio: folk dance; [2] the double rolled courtain - soundproofing and shading - wire and bulbs lighting scheme designed to visually interfere as little as possible with the historical mixed slab for Orchestra and jazz studio; [3] the hardwood oak floor, the mirrors and the barres with a ‘Y’ shaped lighting scheme designed to sugest dynamism for Choreography studio: classic/modern/contemporary dance, [4] the textured (plaster, bricks, concrete, sheet metal and steel beams) all white background with wire and white globes lighting scheme for the Fashion studio and [5, 6] all white background with linear lighting schemes for the Painting and Graphics studios.

Design Team: Anamaria Moldovan, Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Stefan Ionut Perse, Eszter Szoke, Robert Dozsa

Collaborators: engr. Radu Lucian Pop, CSP Proiect Line, Monstar Monolit, dr. Ioana Rus-Cacovean, prof.dr.engr. Augustin Popa, engr. Nicolae Rotaru, engr. Simon Moldovan, dr. Livia Bucsa, arch. Octavian Coroiu, arch. Ruxandra Coroiu, dr. David Dragomir-Cosmin

Design Year: 2015-2017

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion year: 2015-2017

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Net area: 449,60 sqm 

General Contractor: S.C. Rares Constructii S.R.L.

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Ovidiu Micsa / ADMO Studio

The restoration, enhancement and introduction to the tourist circuit of the castrum of the 5th roman Legion, also known as Macedonica, in the city of Turda or Potaissa in ancient roman times, is a project that revolves around a series of iterative architectural interventions consisting of [1] new buildings designed to meet the touristic needs of the ensemble and [2] structures designed to offer hints at the templates of some of the most important buildings in the castrum, but it also calls for systematization interventions whose purpose is to coherently and conceptually organize the site so that the heritage in question becomes a public space capable of producing social and educational capital.

The project establishes a dialogue between past, present and future by exploring Rome’s heritage, summed up by the expression 'urban civilization'. The intervention is thus one in which the proposed built structures allow for the reading of every historical layer without the introduction of ambiguities and/or distortions. The resolve lies within the use of the least invasive construction material for this type of intervention: steel. Steel structures can be founded isolatedly, are prefabricated and, therefor, assembled with ease and, more importantly, can be dismantled with almost the same ease. They are characterized by slenderness, allowing the reach of large spans with a reduced number of elegant structural elements, which do not impose themselves through size to the remains of the castrum and thus have a reduced impact on the integrity of the archaeological site. Due to the aesthetic and structural possibilities, it was possible to create a family of objects that consists of two types of architectural structures with the following two specific differences: [1] those designed to meet the tourist needs of the ensemble whose steel structures are hidden behind their respective shells and [2] those conceived to suggest the templates of some of the most important Roman constructions whose steel structures are exposed, somewhat like a skeletal system.

The main entrance area, through the former Porta Decumana, coagulates 3 of the 8 proposed objects. They all revolve around a central public space, as follows: on the northwest the Pergola, the Pavilion on the southwest, and the structure that hints at the template of the former Porta Decumana on the southeastern side.

The Pergola serves as a meeting point, a break before and after the tour of the 23ha archaeological site. It falls into the first typology of the family of objects as it is a steel and wood structure designed to protect against the whims of weather.

The Pavilion houses the information point, the audio-guide rental and ticketing area, luggage storage, gift shop, the bistro, the restrooms and several storage and office spaces. It is part of, like the Pergola, the first typology of the object family and is also its generator. The bar-shaped building is supported by 21 isolated foundations and is dominated by the digital frontispiece whose role is to greet visitors in their own languagend to support a selection of posts, likes, comments or hashtag. The idea is to attract, promote and integrate the archaeological site not only in the physical tourist circuit but also in the virtual one, a world that is transforming the whole set of social customs, from how we all work, play, think, feel, and relate to each other.

On the south-eastern side of the public space lies Porta Decumana, which falls into the second typology of the object family, being also its generator, designed to hint at the template of the former Roman gate. The access to the site will be done by crossing the pedestrian bridges designed to avoid any contact with the ruins of the Roman gate.

The Observation Tower, similar to a military assault tower, is positioned so as to provide 360° perspective mainly over Principia (The Roman High Command Building), but also over the Thermae. The tower is clothed in a brass mesh that, like a veil, is permeable to the sight trying to be present without over-imposing itself to the archaeological site.

One of the elements that best illustrates the advantages of using steel structures is the pavilion designed for the protection and exploring the ruins of the Thermae. Its 14 pillars structure, similar to a large spanning pergola, allows for the suspension a walkway system designed to offer a 170 meters long visiting route.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Eszter Szoke, Gloria Gagu, Madalina Sasa, Adrian Urda, Adrian Ovidiu Bucin

Collaborator[s]: Alexandru-Ivan Greceniuc

Design Year: 2016

Status: Competition 1st place

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Turda, Romania

Gross area:  

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

The project tackles a single family house on a (typical) 590sqm plot, under typical urban regulations. The brief revolves around two main constituents: 

• the wish for two courtyards/gardens, one in the front witha representation character, due to its direct relation with the street, and a more private one  in the back, due to its relation with the house;

• a very open spatial relation between kitchen, living-room, dining area and the two gardens.

Our approach led to a triangle shaped house that manages through shape to to create the two gardens: the front garden - south oriented, and the private garden - west oriented. The triangle shape of the house helps protect the private garden from the possibly indiscreet eyes of the passers by. The shape and orientation of the house result in an optimal placement of  each room and area of the house. On the ground floor, the living-room and dining area are south and west oriented and open to both of the gardens, while the kitchen, pantry and technical room are pushed towards north. The stair occupies the easternmost corner of the house and ties the ground floor hallway with the attic hallway switching the latter to the north. As a result two of the bedrooms open themselves towards south and the garden in the front while the main bedroom opens towards both south and west and, thus, towards both gardens. The bigger floor area for the attic results in a cantilever spanning on both south and west sides of the house, protecting thus the two terraces from the elements. 

The triangle shaped plan transforms into a volume that opens itself towards the backyard garden, with a very wide facade, at the same time offering a very slender and intriguing one towards the street.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Gloria Gagu, Adrian Urda

Collaborator[s]: eng. Radu Lucian Pop, CSP Proiect Line,

Design Year: 2016

Status: Construction

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Otopeni, Romania

Gross area: 183,60 sqm

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

coming soon...

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Eszter Szoke, Gloria Gagu, Adrian Ovidiu Bucin

Collaborator[s]: Florin-Vasile Lazar

Design Year: 2015

Status: Construction

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area: 509,52 sqm

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

ARS Apartment is located on the topmost floor of a 1920s building in the historic part of the city of Cluj-Napoca. Although considering its privileged position, due to the fact that almost all of its windows are north oriented and almost all of them open towards the inner courtyard of the building, the apartment’s major drawback is the lack of direct sunlight. 

The ambition of the project was thus to increase the number of hours and quantity of direct sun light and, in so doing, to increase the quality of life of the occupants. The goal was met through [1] the demolition of the wall separating the kitchen and the living room obtaining an ‘L’ shaped mono-volume space which receives direct sunlight from the west oriented kitchen window, [2] by cutting a glazed opening in the wall separating the office from the living room and allowing, thus, direct sunlight in the living room from the south oriented office window and finally, [3] by the restoration of the interior doors and their repainting in solar colors.  

Other features of the design include, but are not limited to, the restoration of all of the exterior joineries, the uncovering of the buildings essence by revealing two different typologies of brickwork, one in the living room, and another in the bedroom, the reinterpretation of 1920s honeycomb monochromatic ceramic flooring and the custom made multipurpose wardrobe which nests a seating area near the apartment’s entrance, hides the boiler and the entrance to the bathroom and marks the beginning of the living room.

Design Team: Anamaria Moldovan, Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Eszter Szoke

Collaborator[s]: Florin-Vasile Lazar

Design Year: 2015

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2016

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Net area:  89,23 sqm

Furniture Manufacturer: Furni Mobile

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: ateliercetrei, Ovidiu Micsa

The project was developed at the invitation of Cluj-Napoca based IT&C company iQuest. The later decided to relocate their headquarters in one of Cluj’s main textile garments factory - Flacara. Based on the competition brief and our in-house documentation process, the project rests on three conceptual pillars. These will be found within the two major spatial categories: the Cell and the Core with the corresponding 9 subcategories (3 for the cell and 6 for the nucleus).

1st pillar - Perforations: The project weaves mores storylines into a very custom made narrative. The later speculates the common link between the IT&C industry and the textile industry - Jacquard's loom and its punch cards as well as the successive iterations of the personal computer up to the present days. The references to the punch cards and textile industry are visible in/from all of the project's spaces: the proposed graphical identity, the ceiling and the restrooms tiling. The latter is inspired from Romanian traditional men's and women's outfits. 

2nd pillar - Personality: The emphasis that iQuest puts on its people and their personality is reflected within the project through the custom designed furniture objects. The later allow the expression of people's personalities (e.g. pictures of their families, team building manufactures, trophies, medals, personal items). All of these items can be seen by anyone but, through their compartmentalisation they do not dominate the identity of the firm which, after all, is more than the sum of the people who compose it.

3rd pillar - School: After carefully analysing the spaces of some of the most prestigious universities in the world we concluded that their particular atmosphere is reinforced through the surfaces designated for writing, the areas meant to capture ideas. These areas can be found in all of the building's spaces and not just in the meeting rooms. As such we decided to cover part of  office buildings' walls in green blackboard. They will relate directly to the workspace of the teams so that unexpected meetings can occur as quickly as possible without the hassle of scheduling meeting rooms.

At a spatial level, the Cell represents the current level that contains work areas for individual teams, recreation areas, offices, training rooms and multimedia room.

The core is the central area that contains all the meeting rooms, the offices and restrooms.

Between the highlights of the project are the two antithetical recreation areas: one adjacent to the south facade called the Garden and one adjacent to the north facade called the Hearth. The two places gravitate around one central object each: a tree for the Garden (could be Photinia, Prunus Laurocerasus or Aucuba Japonica) and a fireplace for the Hearth.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Anamaria Moldovan, Eszter Szoke

Collaborator[s]: Adrian Urda, Adrian Ovidiu Bucin

Design Year: 2015

Status: Competition 2nd place

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area:  1.875 sqm

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

The project investigates, upon Electrogrup's request, the possibility of an open space strategy for the company's executive level, as well as the benefits that this approach might entail.

The main driver of the project is to identify a spatial response that manages to reflect the company's core values, like family, seriousness, the prestige of an established business as well as the business approach - cross sector. In this sense, the word 'cross' was considered adliteram - a simple gesture that generates spatial complexity.

The central object of the project becomes, thus, the 'table’, meant to accommodate the entire executive 'family' of the firm. The ‘table’ form finding process is structured by [1] the creation, through angularity, of ‘places’ without the need for partition walls and [2] the creation of a spatial identity by identifying a strong graphic shape - similar to a logo.

The table rests on a set of 20 cubes designed for hand-held storage while the cabinets and paneling react to the shape of the ‘table’ through theirs similar angularity. The dynamic of the project is toned down by the elegance of the materials: leather, both on the chairs and fauteuils, as well as on the conference room floor, oak wood and veneer for the custom buit furniture and paneling, Carrara marble for the wall leading to the conference room, black coated steel present in the lighting fixtures or traditional Maramures embroideries through rugs and pillows.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Anamaria Moldovan, Eszter Szoke

Collaborator[s]: -

Design Year: 2015

Status: Concept and Detail Design + Product Information

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area:  201,4 sqm 

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]:

ALA Notary’s Office ambition is to differ from the usual desired opulence of one’s typical notary and law office interior architecture. Its interior, dominated by simple yet elegant custom made oak veneered furniture, revolves around the partially glazed wall that separates the two main spaces of the program: the notary’s office and the waiting room. The glazed wall is pierced by storage boxes and by the secretary's desk which, if needed, extends intro the notary’s office in order to accommodate the typist.

The forced perspective corridor that leads to and from the waiting area gives the illusion that the spaces are twice as closer from the entrance and twice as farther from the exit. This Po-Mo type of irony is continued in the small toilet which has its walls covered in sumptuous Carrara marble.

Design Team: Anamaria Moldovan, Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Eszter Szoke, Gloria Gagu

Collaborator[s]: Florin-Vasile Lazar

Design Year: 2015

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2017

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Net area: 50,6 sqm

Furniture Manufacturer: Furnimobile

Steel partition wall by: Sculptor Florin Magda

Wooden flooring by: Cosmin Oltean

Mattress Manufacturer: Oana Big (Pouf)

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: ateliercetrei, Ovidiu Micsa

The project operates with two diametrically opposed features of the site: its strongest and its weakest. The two features become agents in placing, shaping and materializing the 5 room guesthouse. 

The strongest feature of the 1ha site, its breathtaking view of Arieș river from its Carpathian mountains valley in the west to the vastness of Transylvanian Plateau to the east, is instrumental in establishing the shape and position of the guesthouse on the site. Due to the sinuous route, to and from the site, through the orchards of Cheia village the view is only perceptible upon entering the site at its highest point on the northwest ridge. The guesthouse takes, on the one hand, a bar shape plan that acts like a barrier destined to delay one’s encounter with the view, and on the other, a forced perspective cross section shape destined to amplify the impact of ones encounter with the view.

The weakest feature, the lack of any and all traditional Romanian houses, is due to the position on the village near the city of Turda. The project sources, therefore, its materials and building techniques within the realm of the traditional houses, that used to compose the architecture of the village until not so long ago. 

Stone masonry for the cellar, brick masonry covered in plaster for the first floor, fretted wooden railings and wooden walls for the porches of the rooms and the collective lodge, shingle for the roof are here reinterpreted on/by a contemporary volume ready to offer a mix of traditional and contemporary Romanian hospitality for tourists from around the world.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Anamaria Moldovan

Collaborator[s]: 

Design Year: 2014

Status: Design development

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Cheia, com. Mihai Viteazu, Romania

Gross area:  200 sqm

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Google, ateliercetrei

The refurbishment of 'Tudor Jarda' School of Folk Art headquarters was an 18 months long planning process for the interventions on a 1912 building with a ca. 1970s extension. Due to the fact that the historic building was/is not listed as a monument the ensemble passed through a couple of mutilating stages. The project aims to uncover as much of the building’s essence as possible and to adapt it to its new program and its beneficiary’s needs.

New features were added such as, but not limited to (exterior to interior): a new fountain, better accessibility, a weather resistant steel pinion that marks the now inexistent limit between the historic building and the 70s addition, new vertical circulations, structural interventions at the attic level in order to support two new education spaces, a weather resistant steel clad ‘tower’ that hosts a new stair and attic HVAC systems.
 

Design Team: Anamaria Moldovan, Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Stefan Ionut Perse, Eszter Szoke, Robert Dozsa, Adrian Ovidiu Bucin, Adrian Urda

Collaborators: eng. Radu Lucian Pop, CSP Proiect Line, D&B Proiectare, Monstar Monolit

Design Year: 2013-2015

Status: Construction

Execution | Completion year: 

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area: 3062 sqm - total, 1585 sqm - intervention

General Contractor: S.C. Rares Constructii S.R.L.

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Ovidiu Micsa, ateliercetrei

The project unfolds the transformation of a structure designed for a stag in a home for a young family. The challenge was to propose a type of intervention that reduces, through elimination, the existing structure to its volumetric essence and, later, to add functions and their corresponding volumes in the same spirit. The house thus becomes an 'apparatus' that mediates the transition from public space and public life to private space and public life being defined by the two main facades. The relation with the street is mediated by a facade dominated by a dent announcing the entrance... a ‘carved’ entrance with the purpose of announcing the warmth of the house. The relationship with the garden is mediated by a glazed facade that transforms the living-room in an extension of the garden and vice versa.

The interiors revolve around the ample living-room, a space that unfolds on two stories and thus intermediates the dialogue between the ground floor and the second floor as well as between the house and the garden. They are defined and dominated by large planes whose colors and textures draw from the nature of the finishings.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Anamaria Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Stefan Perse, Eszter Szoke, Adrian-Ovidiu Bucin, Adrian-Ioan Urda

Collaborator[s]: eng. Cosmin Vartic, Instal Utilities

Design Year: 2014 - 2017

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2017

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area:  246 sqm

General Contractor: M.C.R. Invest S.R.L., Imperial Comex

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: ateliercetrei, Ovidiu Micsa

The ambition of the project was to conceive a single family house that would respond to three main design drivers:

A house that merges with its garden and vice-versa.

A house that manages to accommodate all of the needs of one family on the ground floor thus allowing the space in the attic to become an awesome playground for the children with a forest like appearance thanks to the visible wooden roof structure.

A house that, due to its shape and layout, adjusts its appearance in relation with the surrounding garden and cardinal orientation looking different from almost every angle. One of the features that reinforces this aspect is the folded roof whose shape is a  mediation between the layout of the house and the cardinal points in order to obtain a south facing optimum slope for the support of solar panels.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Anamaria Moldovan

Collaborator[s]: eng. Calin Crisan, eng. Radu Miclaus

Design Year: 2014

Status: Construction

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area:  268 sqm

General Contractor: -

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: -

The project responds to the brief of a young (lady) urban professional working as a project manager in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry and is characterized by honesty on two levels. A functional one by adapting itself to the 1950s apartment layout as found, and a conceptual one by not claiming to be more than it is ... Namely an Interior Architecture project designed and built with the most common materials in the industry used, however, in a different way. This way of working with the materials gives the project the force that our young client sought after through, for example, the design of the kitchen furniture, thought as a cantilevered object hovering 20cm above the floor level. Gamut (color palette) comes to strengthen the desired masculine character of the ensemble. One of the highlights of the project is the ensemble of interior carpenter doors with glass coloured boards. They act as an ambient agent through the way they filter both natural and artificial light, as well as a coding agent suggesting the destination for each of the apartment’s rooms.

Design Team: Anamaria Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Paul-Mihai Moldovan

Collaborator[s]: 

Design Year: 2013

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2015

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Net area:  61 sqm

Furniture Manufacturer: Salice Comprod

Text:  ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: ateliercetrei, Ovidiu Micsa

The challenge of this project was to transform an existing one room house, joint to a ground-floor apartment building with a common courtyard, into a comfortable home for a family of four. Given the small dimensions of the existing building, our design proposal was to expand it with an upper story.

The ground-floor is designed as a singular room which combines the hallway, the kitchen, living and the dining room within the same space, thus giving one the impression of a much more generous floor area.

The garret floor includes the three bedrooms that the family needs and therefore ingenious space saving solutions were applied in order to gain more living area. We opted for a design that makes use of the space above the staircase and the corridor, transforming it into the kids bed nooks. By doing this the younger members’  bedrooms will have a playful personality given by the two split levels linked only by a steep fortress like stair in the magical childhood universe. The solution will also impact the geometry of the roof, resulting in an asymmetrical shape that hides the split levels and provides the opportunity for the natural light to flood in. There is an abundance of light throughout the garret floor, which contributes to the feeling of a generous space and extinguishes the burdensome feeling of common garret floors.

At ground-level, the wide windows of the south facade facilitate the extension of the house onto the side terrace, and the continuous communication between interior and exterior, a fervent wish of the lady of the house.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Anamaria Moldovan

Collaborator[s]: eng. Calin Crisan

Design Year: 2012

Status: Design development

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Net area:  131 sqm

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: ateliercetrei

‘Tudor Jarda’ School of Folk Art’s ‘Site’ hall was conceived as a platform suitable for theatre performances, conferences, fashion shows, concerts, exhibitions, workshops, cocktails or various fairs. The hall is situated at the ground floor of the 1970’s extension of a 19th century building from Cluj-Napoca. Even though the building was part of the eclectic ensemble that functioned as Royal Correctional Institute, at the beginning of 20th century, it had various functions over time (e.g. cart repair shop, hospital). 

The multifuctionality of the main hall was solved by a combination of fixed and mobile systems, therefore, most of the budget was allocated to the technical infrastructure and equipments. The mobile systems and the stage allow the school to operate outside its physical boundaries, wherever and whenever there is a need or an opportunity. In so doing the school is also able to generate operational funds.

Considering the historical path of the building, a ‘minimal interventions with maximal effects‘ concept was applied. The idea was to ‘return to the origins’ and to work with/reveal the construction’s elements, such as the exposed historical brick masonry and 1970’s concrete ceiling structure. The added elements were the hardwood oak floor, the acoustic wall made of oak veneered MDF panels, the hardwood oak window frames and the fireproofed velvet curtains and drapes. These elements and the carefully chosen chromatics and materiality underline the historical side of the hall outlining the genuineness of the historical materials.

One of ateliercetrei’s main preoccupations, both a dilemma and a challenge, are the concepts of identity and tradition and the possible relationship[s] between the two. Therefore, the main identitary element of the hall is the custom perforated MDF acoustic wall, based on a graphical interpretation of the traditional Romanian folk stitching technique, called ‘lunceţ de unsprezece’ or ‘albina’ (the bee), found on the sleeve of the famous ‘blouse roumaine’.

The interior design of ‘Tudor Jarda’ School of Folk Art’s ‘Site’ hall functioned like a ‘capsule type’ intervention in a building that is part of Cluj-Napoca’s industrial architectural heritage, leading, due to its success,  to the rehabilitation of the entire building. 

Design Team: Anamaria Moldovan, Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar

Collaborators: CSP Proiect Line

Design Year: 2011

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion year: 2013

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area: 240 sqm

General Contractor: S.C. Rares Constructii S.R.L.

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Ovidiu Micsa, 'Tudor Jarda' School of Folk Art's Archive

coming soon...

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar

Collaborator[s]: -

Design Year: 2010

Status: Construction

Execution | Completion Year: -

Location: Rimetea, Romania

Gross area:  173,66 sqm 

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]:

ateliercetrei was appointed by  Romanian Order of Architects – Transylvania branch( OAR-T) and  Architecture Students’ Association ( ASTA) to coordinate a student workshop for the design & build of an urban object [UO]. The UO's purpose was to promote Transylvania 2013 Architecture Biennale (BATRA) events to the cities of Cluj-Napoca, Baia-Mare, Zalau, Oradea, Bistrita, Alba-Iulia and Satu Mare. 

The workshop proved to be, as all hands-on architecture workshops are, a great learning opportunity for the students involved with the project. They were thus able to explore and experiment hands-on with construction techniques and construction materials (e.g. properties, advantages and limitations, specific construction and processing techniques/technologies). Considering time and budget limitations and the heterogeneity of the students’ group, we became mentors whose main role was to moderate their debates and rationalize decisions during the entire process. 

The workshop kicked-off on November 2nd 2013 and culminated on December 5th, at a medium temperature of -10ºC, with the construction of the UO in Cluj-Napoca, on the pedestrian side of Eroilor Boulevard. The 14 students involved with the project, all of whom from the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning in Cluj-Napoca, ranging from the second to the fourth year of study, were divided into 4 heterogeneous teams. Their proposals were jointly analyzed, compared and improved until one version was ‘democratically’ selected to be detailed and built. The detail design, final proposal, product information, project planning, operations on site and construction to practical completion of the selected proposal were divided in separate tasks designed to allow all the students to get involved in all the phases of the project.

The students’ ambition was to create a pavilion that can discreetly adapt to each of the above mentioned city centers. The discretion was achieved through transparency, created by the 20 horizontal layers distanced using 318 dowel spacers. From afar the UO was blending in with the continuous fronts of the city centers, but its presence and details were more and more visible as the distance shortened. The object was placed in areas of pedestrian transit in such a way that anyone could go through and get information about BATRA’s events and locations. 

Even if developed in a ‘classical architectural’ manner, the project had the ambition to use ‘file-to-factory’ processes.  The strictness of the digital model prevented human mistakes that could appear in the process of cataloging and prototyping the 20 layers composed of 60 different catalogue parts, the 3 base and roof plates and the 318 dowel spacers. The catalogue parts were cut out of 18 mm sterling board (OSB) using a CNC milling machine. That transformed the construction to completion process into a 14 hours assembling process, allowing the UO to be disassembled in less than 3 hours. For transportation and handling purposes the catalogue parts were optimized to fit within the boundaries of an OSB panel (2500 by 1250 mm). 

The object was recycled by ‘La terenuri - Common space in Manastur’'s team after BATRA 2013's event.

For manufacturing purposes the team employed: CNC milling machine, eco-solvent plotter, two S200 scaffolding modules, chainsaw, two drilling machines, two screw guns, miter saw, jig saw, extension cable, two spirit levels, four hammers and three tape measures. 

Design Team: Cristina Alb, Hunor Bako, Diana Bolcas, Adrian Ovidiu Bucin, Maria Buiga, Flaviu Cizmas, Oana Mager, Iulia Mihai, Delia Negrusa, Razvan Nemtau, Csenge Patakfalvi, Madalina Sasa, Arina Timis, Adrian Urda.

Coordinators: Anamaria Moldovan, Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar

Collaborators: Salice Prodcom, CON-A, K-Glass, Verla, Rares Constructii

Design Year: 2013

Status: Completed workshop

Execution | Completion year: 2013

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area: 9 sqm

General Contractor: 

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]:  Oana Mager, Radu Becus

coming soon...

Design Team: Florin-Vasile Lazar, Anamaria Moldovan, Paul-Mihai Moldovan

Collaborators: Cosmin Vartic

Design Year: 2012

Status: Construction

Execution | Completion year: -

Location: Campia-Turzii, Romania

Gross area: 26.716 sqm

General Contractor: -

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: - 

The modular showcase systems for [premium] products for Wienerberger Porotherm were born as a result of our design collaboration with Tact s.r.l. and following the rebranding of the bricks and clay roof tiles producing company.

The showcase system used in the present is considered outdated thus the company feels the need to replace it with innovating design systems that have to be both modular (to adapt to the various places where they will be exposed) and functional. 

We began imagining these prototypes from the essence of bricks - clay - and from the tight bond that this material has with nature. Soil (clay) is at the same time ingredient/matter in brick production and support for the vegetal layer. By reversing this reality we arrived upon a paradox where the vegetal layer that extract its nourishment from clay, becomes the support for its manifestation in architecture. 

We presented this paradox in the showcase modules that use materials such as steel tubes and tempered glass and we tried to imprint them a touch of contemporaneity by using LED lightning and “post P.C. technology” for a better representation of the client.

Design Team: Anamaria Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Paul-Mihai Moldovan

Collaborator[s]: s.c. Tact s.r.l

Design Year: 2012

Status: Completed

Material[s]: Steel tubes and tempered glass

Technique[s]: Welding and molding

Manufacturer: s.c. Tact s.r.l

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Dacian Groza, Catalin Budusan

We were commissioned by Verla+Axelen Group to design the setting for an temporary exhibition that was going to mark their 18th anniversary. This exhibition was going to take place in one of the ‘public spaces’ of Iulius Mall in Cluj-Napoca. Four photographers (Adrian Petrisor, Cristina Sutu, Radu Badoiu and Teodora Neagu) were on display with photographs from the Sic Nature Reserve. 

The secondary aim of the event was to display a ‘tour de force’ of high quality large prints on a wide range of materials (wallpapers, stickers, films and textiles). Our concept had three major elements: the ‘wall’, the ‘background’ and the ‘parts’. 

The ‘wall’ was a 5t furniture-type construction that had a double role: to host different systems like light boxes and cable display systems and to support the vertical part of the background. 

The ‘background’ was a 21.15x9.9m b&w print of the Sic Nature Reserve and 3 ‘skins’ for the shopping center’s pillars. The b&w print dematerialized itself as it unfolded on the floor allowing the finishes of the shopping center to surface. The ‘skins’ were made out of aluminum angle profiles that held four 1.56x2.86cm large textile prints each. The idea behind the ‘wall’ and the ‘background’ was to try to appropriate the multiple-personality space of Iulius Mall and to introduce the visitors of the exhibition in the nature reserve’s atmosphere.

The parts consist of tear and cube shaped beanbags, tables and ceiling hung umbrellas all of them with custom made textile and sticker prints. The idea behind the custom prints of the parts was that the beanbags and tables had ground textures such as grass, fallen leaves, etc. while the ceiling hung umbrellas had sky textures such as clouds, tree branches with leaves, etc.

The end result was a unity in diversity exhibition that subordinates itself to the 'muchness' concept.

Design Team: Anamaria Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Paul-Mihai Moldovan

Collaborator[s]: s.c. Tiparo Foto s.r.l.

Design Year: 2012

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2012

Location: Iulius Mall, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

 Net area: 150 sqm

Text:  ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Dacian Groza

The ‘Zig Zag’ book shelf was developed with the apartment’s space constraints and the client wishes in mind. Part of the living area is used as passage from the entrance hall to the bedrooms. The book shelf offers a background for this crossing, linking thus the two different spaces and opening itself at the same time towards the living room.

The book shelf ‘grows’ in depth  from 5 cm near the lobby to 50 cm on the opposite side, near the bedrooms. Being a modular system, this growth was designed as a series of ‘saw teeth’ with an ever increasing depth, that mimics the arrangement of the wooden floor. 

The materials used, oak veneered and black coated MDF, support the design dynamics, allowing the owner to transform it’s aesthetics with each book or object placed inside.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar, Anamaria Moldovan

Collaborator[s]: 

Design Year: 2011

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2012

Location: Timisoara, Romania

Net area: 

Furniture Manufacturer: Studioholz

Text:  ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Ovidiu Micsa

coming soon...

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar

Collaborator[s]: -

Design Year: 2011

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2014

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Gross area:  192 sqm 

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]:

The wedding ring[s] design reflects our understanding of marriage... a mechanism that works fueled not only by love but also by the bitter-sweet compromises. It is a ‘whole’ created by the union of two people and the only instance in which 1+1 does amount to 1.

Therefore we designed the wedding ring[s] as a ‘symbolon’ (from Greek symbállein – to put together), a means of recognizing and completing each other. The ring is cut in half and only the two halves fitted together can deliver the true meaning of a life to be lived alongside each other. Together they form a single ring, apart they constantly remind each bearer about the other half.

We commissioned photographer Ana Rusu to depict the ring and its two halves one year after their creation. The photos illustrate the passing of time in the form of the scratches left on the ring[s] by constant use.

Design Team: Anamaria Moldovan, Paul-Mihai Moldovan

Collaborator[s]:

Design Year: 2010

Status: Completed

Material[s]: White 18k Gold

Technique[s]: CNC and hand polishing

Manufacturer: s.c. Sabion Elen s.r.l.

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Ana Rusu 

Triangle. An Urban Experiment is the materialization of a project won after a tendering procedure organized by the Campia-Turzii City Hall. The specifications mentioned both a technical and detailed project for a foiled fountain. 

After carefully analyzing the details and the current condition of the project, our intention has been to make an inventory of the public spaces from the proletarian quarter, which has been built in the ‘80s in order to accommodate the families of the integrated iron and still work labourers. These spaces have been transformed in time into parking lots, garages or fenced spaces, thus becoming semi-private areas. The results this analysis lead us to the necessity of a radical change of the project brief, by conceiving the fountain as a secondary element in relation to the new priorities – on the one hand, the creation of a public space meant to function as a social catalyst capable of establishing a relational intersection around the fountain; on the other hand, an infusion of new green spaces, against the typology engaged in constructing the surrounding buildings.

Once the municipality approved the new strategy, we’ve begun the design process of the new space by starting from the triangular shape of the site. Two “blocks” of vegetation protect both the pedestrian area against the street, and the surrounding collective apartments against urban noise. Our intention has been to back away from the idea of a purely decorative fountain and to create an object that would allow interaction, while being integrated into the surrounding space at the same time. The object creates a contrast and defines a new space, where the citizens are empowered to interact and imprint a new dynamics in space circulation. The triangle thus functions as a multi-directional sense and creates a field of social activity and interaction, parting with the old and ineffectual typological conventions.

We believe the interaction generated by the new space modeling represents a proof that the creation of social reflexes is part of the architectural practice as an active and ecological solution, in order to redeem the individual’s capacity to participate to a public consciousness in a concerned way.

Triangle. An Urban Experiment is the result of a collaborative process and defines a space that none of the team members could have conceived individually. And the quasi-permanent human presence into this space, regardless of weather conditions or the water flow, is a testimony that this project’s role as a social and spatial catalyst has been fully accomplished.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar

Collaborators:  s.c. Eddan Construct s.r.l.

Design Year: 2010

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion year: 2010

Location: Campia-Turzii, Romania

Gross area: 565 sqm

General Contractor: s.c. Eddan Construct s.r.l.

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Dacian Groza 

Designed to meet the demands and needs of a young lady, Apartment AB is designed in a modular system in which the game of spaces and colors draws a steady line in a deliberately eclectic style. Built in a four years time frame the apartment breathes two styles from whose balancing results a lively, relaxed and airy space.

Located on an upper floor, on the eastern side of an '80s apartment building, the apartment covers a surface area of 65 square meters where the white painted walls contribute to a uniform lighting of the space to highlight the playful colors chosen by the client and the contrast between various furniture systems. As with other projects signed by ateliercetrei, the furniture is defined as being object designed, built in an uniform and defining style.

The colors of the furniture are in a balanced dialogue with the walnut floor. The ceiling has soffits for drapes and curtains which were deliberately chosen to be as "heavy" as possible to thus create an eclectic rapport with the space and the furniture. The hall wardrobe includes all the storage modules to free up space in the apartment.

Both bathroom and bedroom have decorative elements designed with the customer - the floral wallpaper from the bedside, to decorative ceramic tiles with incrusted crystals, carpets and curtains, the space offers privacy and a feminine ambience perfectly integrated to the modular concept. The same modular character is enhanced by the use of 30x60 cm and 10x10 cm ceramic tiles in the bathroom and the kitchen, which enter into direct dialogue with the overall design.

Apartment A.B. is defined by an eclectic functionalism that redraws the internal frames to streamline the spatial living. Efficient use of light and interior space in order to aerate the space, the effort to create continuity at both a formal and material level, or the ability to integrate contrasting decorative motifs put the apartment in a dynamic equilibrium, simple and functional, modulated by the daily needs of the client. The main ergonomic focus, drawn by the furniture from the living area, offers a unique perspective on alternative ways of conceiving and drafting an area without sacrificing practicality or aesthetics. It represents a possible definition of this lively space, as an overview of housing and as a way to imagine the space beyond its physical constraints and limitations.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar

Collaborator[s]:

Design Year: 2008

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2010

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Net area: 65 sqm

Furniture Manufacturer: s.c. Terminus Prod s.r.l. | s.c. Salice Comprod s.r.l.

Text: Sabin Bors

Photographer[s]: Serban Bonciocat, Zsolt Kilin

The question raised by the CAD apartment is one specific to the Romanian contemporary suburb: designing the interior of a flat "poorly thought" from the point of view of architectural project, so as to become efficient and comfortable at the same time. For this reason we cannot use pretentious expressions (such as "spatial concept", "composition", "gesture", etc..) to describe the project. Our attitude was from the beginning a realist-functionalist one: we had to find room for storage where there was none planned in the architecture project of the building. There for a few changes have occurred in the layout, such as the repositioning of the wall between the bedroom and hallway in order to accommodate a second closet in the corridor, used as a "pantry", " dressing for winter clothes” and storage. Consequently, our design may be characterized by two major elements:

The first one, "the show" of custom-made furniture: avoidance of catalog accessories, precision in execution, making use of computer-assisted technologies (e.g. CNC) and maximum functionality (specific locations for each object stored, from the ironing board to the shoeboxes). Due to the small size of the apartment and to the fact that on two of its’ four sides the windows are full height, some unusual furniture layouts had to be designed: the multipurpose cabinet was conceived as a single element positioned in the centre of the living area, designed for easy transportation from the factory to the apartment and the in-situ assembly. It contains a double-access book shelve, multimedia, bar and a place for displaying flower arrangements. Also, the couch in the  living room was designed to be configured in various ways depending on the activities that may take place in the living area. The table was attached to the central multimedia cabinet but  can be removed in the event of  a "small" party. The bed in the bedroom was fitted with drawers at the bottom, three on each side and night stands that can be retracted  when not in use.

The second one would be the use of color - each area of the apartment received a specific color as follows: corridor - red, bathroom - violet-bordeaux, kitchen - olive-green and green in the bedroom. The living area and dining place became the meeting point of all the colors in the apartment.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar

Collaborator[s]:

Design Year: 2008

Status: Completed

Execution | Completion Year: 2010

Location: Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Net area: 54 sqm

Furniture Manufacturer: s.c. Terminus Prod s.r.l.

Text: Sabin Bors

Photographer[s]: Dacian Groza

5070 is a tea and coffee table that we began developing while we were architecture students. It evolved to what it is today in about seven years of design development, improvements, enhancements etc. 

It consists of two modules. A smaller mobile module [408x540x220mm] which has a set of four embedded wheels. It allows the stacking of books, magazines, and whatever else one might have in a living room... The mobile module stands underneath a bigger one [500x700x300mm] and in can be rolled out to expand the serving surface when needed. A set of guides make sure that when one underneath the other the two modules have a distance between their edges equal to their thickness.

Design Team: Paul-Mihai Moldovan, Florin-Vasile Lazar

Collaborator[s]: Mihai Rosca

Design Year: 2005

Status: Completed

Material[s]: Veneered MDF with wooden trims

Technique[s]: Hand crafting

Manufacturer: ateliercetrei

Text: ateliercetrei

Photographer[s]: Dacian Groza