Portfolio thesis projects msc arch laurentiu tiberiu stancu

PORTFOLIO MSC ARCH LAURENTIU TIBERIU STANCU

HIGHER EDUCATION 1 - Date: October 1999 - July 2005 - Institution: “ION MINCU” UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM - Department: FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE

GRADUATION PROJECT - ECUMENICAL CENTER

FROM ARCHETYPE TO ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT

LOCATION: SINCA VECHE VILLAGE, BRASOV COUNTY, ROMANIA ARCHITECTURE: ARCH LAURENTIU TIBERIU STANCU SUPERVISING PROFESSOR: PhD PROF ARCH FLORIN BICIUSCA DESIGN PERIOD: JANUARY 2005-JUNE 2005 GRADUATION PROJECT AWARDED WITH “ THE MEDAL OF ION MINCU UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM” Description.

I am fascinated by religious architecture and, although it was little touched upon in my academic studies, I took the challenge to explore a religious program in my Thesis. I choose a little country village named Sinca Veche where authorities and non-profit organizations like “Caritas” where planning to build a religious center. It all started with a courtyard and a little house for scouts and summer schools that I decided to keep as a symbol of departure of the new project.

This place was not chosen by accident. It has a complicated history of religious misunderstandings, of violence but also of reconciliation, that dates back from the XIX century. It is a place where people of different religions have been trying to coexist under extreme political pressure. After almost 200 years people are learning to respect each other’s beliefs and share their faith in peace. This project was conceived as a symbol of this.

I thought of this project as a center that can provide a learning environment for people of the two religions common to the area-Greek Orthodox and Greek-Catholic. Both religious denominations are very close in terms of liturgical rite, thus the idea of a common liturgical space. Also, the center is destined for just anybody who wants to experience a peaceful space or wants to take part in the different events that would be organized here.

It is a monastery, a school, a place where people can come and celebrate their religious traditions or just come to have a peaceful time.

The project consists of: • A monastery with accommodations for resident monks and for visiting religious figures, with facilities for conferences and study • A school provided with study rooms, conference rooms and administrative facilities • An area for accommodating visitors and students • Areas for accommodating different workshops for traditional practices • Areas for organizing outdoor celebrations.

Together with my teacher we chose to concentrate in the project on these programs. The church was for further study…work in progress.

Concept The idea was to use a basic archetype as a core for the conceptual development of the project. I was thinking that every convent is seen as a projection of the Heavenly Jerusalem on Earth.

The starting point was an enclosed ideal structure that defines the basic structural elements that will shape the spaces of the ecumenical center. I thought of the entire architectural program as a growing system that has it’s roots in this primordial element. The rule for the articulation of the spaces was the different level of intimacy and privacy of each functional program, the site characteristics and another powerful symbolic fact: I thought that the entire building should be under the sign of a pathway toward knowledge and God-the spaces should articulate in order that they symbolically form The Path of the Cross–a path that is constantly rising. All the elements that form the program are articulated around courtyards that stretch along this pathway from the most public area to the most intimate. The path is not unidirectional. It comes to a turning point-the Library courtyard. Here is the “Free Will”. You may choose right to the school which is more profane, or left to the Monastery. Thus the Library becomes a symbolic element for the project-it is a link between the two worlds.

I choose to think at the program as an “ Imago Mundi”-a small village in a shell. Despite its dimensions I tried to keep the overall height as low as possible in order to avoid surpassing the height of the houses commonly found in the near village. The building aims to impose its presence as a landmark but to continue organically the scale of the built environment.

The only vertical lines are the bell tower, the church and the beadle towers. Just like a traditional village you could see the stone, the wood joints the roofs of the houses and the religious landmarks.

I chose the materials and the constructive methods in order to experiment with traditional building techniques. Overall working at this project was a learning experiment.

Representation of The Heavenly Jerusalem taken from a manuscript of the 11th century, the socalled “Apocalypse of Saint-Sever”.

John of Patmos watches the descent of the New Jerusalem from God in a 14th century tapestry.

Votive painting at the church of Sucevita Monastery, Romania-the King Ieremia Movila offers God a model symbolizing the constructed church.

Sucevita Monastery-the church, Romania, end of the 16th century.

West elevation

THE PARACLISERS AND THE ENTRANCE COURTYARD WITH THE BELL TOWER -”THE ANNOUNCEMENT GARDEN”

THE COURTYARDS-”THE PATH OF THE CROSS”

THE CONFERENCE HALL

FUNCTIONAL SCHEME

Ground floor plan

Transverse section conference hall

Typical transverse section

HIGHER EDUCATION 2 - Institution: UNIVERSITY OF LIECHTENSTEIN - Programme: MASTER’S DEGREE PROGRAMME IN ARCHITECTURE - SUSTAINABLE DESIGN - Date: September 2012 - February 2015

MASTER THESIS - AlpArk PROGRAM: MASTERPLAN FOCUSED ON THE PROMOTION OF TRADITIONAL ALPINE VALUES LOCATION: TRAUNSTEIN, GERMANY ARCHITECTUREA: STUD ARCH SLAURENTIU TIBERIU STANCU SUPERVISING TEAM: PROF. CONRADIN CLAVUOT, ASSIST. PROF. ROBERT MAIR DESIGN PERIOD: SEPTEMBER 2014-JANUARY 2015 (WINTER SEMESTER) GRADUATION PROJECT AWARDED WITH THE “EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURAL GOLD MEDAL FOR BEST DIPLOMA PROJECT 2015” Description The general theme of the project subscribes to the topic of contemporary architecture in Alpine environments and the sustainable development of Alpine settlements. The aim of the project is the research of the relationship between vernacular alpine architecture and architecture in an alpine urban environment. The main focus of the project is a house for craft and the aim of the project can be summarized in questioning if we can we keep alive traditional crafts of the alps by translating them in an institutional environment typical for urban context.

The site in the City of Traunstein close to the Chiemgauer Alps. We find here a typical Bavarian city located in the flatland and framed by the presence of the Alps. The former use of the site left traces that mark the morphology of the site and tell about its vocation to be central and in the same time marginal within the city while being “cut” from it. The current state of the place that rests in a state of abandonment speaks about its vocation to be marginal.

Concept The task of the project called for a thematic master plan. From the start the topic is governed by a strong general idea: bringing people together to celebrate traditional crafts and alpine culture. My concept tries to coagulate all the requirements of the master plan in a single building that creates a specific dialogue with the limitations of our particular site in Traunstein. As in the vernacular alpine houses the idea of a growing organism is brought into the project scheme but in a formally planned way.

The project is a “line” that stretches within the site like a ruler. It should act as a presence between architecture and landscape that splits the reality of the site between an urban space to the North and a natural park to the South that brings into the building the fresh smell of grass.

The idea behind the urban presence of the project draws from the traces and the history of the site. There is a strong caesura within the site already marked by the presence of the street that makes a division between a territory with strong functional roots that deal with the presence of the railways and one that situates itself at the threshold between city and industry, characterized by the two buildings used for storing wheat. The overall strategy of the project tries to integrate all the existing buildings and bring them to the life of the city while creating a dialogue with the history of the site emphasizing its dichotomy. Thus, the proposed building situates itself on the same spot as former buildings that followed the line of the road while creating a strong division between the two parts of the site.

The “line” will be defined by its section which becomes a representation of “Imago Mundi”-working and living together under a roof.

The design strategy behind the architecture of the building draws from the idea of the archetype. The building in its entirety should be an expression of a condensed form that holds in it all the principles of design. In the end the entire building should speak about its very unit of construction. This idea makes the entire building a growing system that deals with few basic constructive principles. This generates opportunities for staging the construction itself and offers the tool of a great flexibility of use.

The defining constructive elements of the building will be the main structure made in concrete and the secondary structure and the enclosures made in wood. The basic section of the “line” creates a diversity of spaces defined only by material, scale and degree of enclosure. For the most spaces there will be no clear functional assignment. The indoor climatic characteristic and the structure of the spaces will define the use.The entire building should act as a generous frame that accommodates life by offering shelter, light, warmth, accessibility, diversity of spaces.

The intention following the design of the AlpHouse is to give it an expression that makes it similar to an Ark that carries the remnants of Alpine life and landed in Traunstein. It is metaphor of the Imago Mundi and the Noah’s Ark as imagined in the Christian Bible.

INSPIRATIONS FROM BAVARIA, TRAUNSTEIN AND THE SITE OF THE PROJECT

FROM ARCHETYPE TO ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT

The architecture of a house and its model The main house of the household from Wellhausen, Thurgovia, 18th Century, mirrors the constructive and aesthetic principles of a basic constructive unit.

Space, structure and music The design process for Alp Ark was an opportunity to experiment with an alternative design method that tries to relate the three fundamental aspects of architectural design. This opened new perspectives in understanding the architectural drawing and the constructed space as generator of emotions.

LINK TO A PIANO PIECE COMPOSED BY ME AND MY FRIEND ARCH BENCE GROCZ USING MY STUDIES OF STRUCTURAL PLANS AS MUSIC NOTATION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpjPcjsrQQ0

Vertical connectivity

THE STEPS OF CONSTRUCTION AND THE URBAN SITUATION

Energy concept

Material concept

TO BE CONTINUED...