text
The brief involved modernizing an existing structure to turn it into a new hotel. Given that a lot of works needed to focus on interior refurbishment, the design tactics aimed to symultaneously solve the programmatic, technical, aesthetic and representational requirements while keeping the exterior intervention to a minimum. Thus the project is focused on the street bay of the building which it redevelops to incorporate the new main staircase, the lobby and the link to the wine cellar. This constructs a new public image of the hotel and the building’s improved relationship with the street.

text
Site and programme both led to the decision to explode the whole into five separate but identical units. Each unit houses living and dining areas, kitchen, three bedrooms and a large terrace – a small holliday house.
This solution allows for the independent use of each unit/house, for renting several adjacent houses for a larger group, or even for the use of the separate bedroom units that share the living areas on the top level of each house.
More than a decision based on the creative interpretation of the programme and planning for versatility, this is also a technical and strategic position regarding the implantation on an irregular, but steep slope. This also generates nuanced, ambiguous areas between the five houses, thus creating a unique setting for each unit in relation with the surrounding landscape.

text
The project is located on one of the quiet streets and (still) full of vegetation in South Eforie. Without direct access to the sea, but allowing a perspective on it, the plot is a rectangle resulted from a recent batching. The volume represents a maximization of buildable potential of the land, under a permissive regulation, but also ambiguous and interpretable. Consequently, the resulting shape is a strong one, aggressive to the outside, but also introverted. Openings are made only on the short sides: to the street, to the rear of the parcel (view to the sea) and to an inner courtyard; to the two long sides of the plot, the construction is opaque. If we consider the fact that the hotel consists of two buildings connected by a stairway - identical plan, but treated typologically differently (one is covered with a steep sloping oriented to the sea, the other has a roof terrace) - results in a very special silhouette, recognizable, able, we hope, to become a signal and a business card of the hotel. The entire assembly is lifted from the ground to allow the use of land as outside parking. The atypical image of the suspended volumes contributes to the expressiveness of the project.
After long discussions and negotiations with local mayoralty over interpretable aspects of the regulation, after solving the problems caused by sensitivity of coastal land, the project was authorized and expected the end of the tourist season to start site.

text
This small bar project refers to a lot of Sinaia, in the central promenade area. The investor’s limitations were related to the idea of land lease from the Mayoralty for a limited period. For this reason, the whole project had to be designed with cheap material, easy to install and, of course, to remove.
We chose to use for the entire design polycarbonate material, with the primary benefit of its insulating properties, in terms of limited budget. But what we were interested in these solutions was a two-stroke operation of the project, diurnal and nocturnal. Thus, the cafe would receive enough light during day light and the view on the park on one long side, and by night it could become a bright attraction in the small tourist town. The removable wooden structure with metal joints was also somewhat implied to this sort of program.