Graduation projects
Community center and urban renewal
Project description
The people of Între Lacuri neighbourhood, Cluj-Napoca, have been living there for over three generations. The majority of the houses with gardens have been demolished in order for a new mega-development of unfinished socialist dwellings to be built, and now the banks (and sometimes, even the lakes) are urbanised chaotically.The graduation project is the result of a dissertation and a photographic study that capture everyday life of these people. As a part of the community, the author played the role of the specialist, as well as the user. The small interventions throughout the neighbourhood and the community centre are based on the needs and wants expressed by the community in a questionnaire: a lake free of garages, child-friendly streets, parking lots and spaces for walks, a point of gathering for all ages.As an upside down reflection of the nearby mall, the building is rather a social cluster, then a specific programme. The site consists of a former parking lot and a few leftover houses (now turned in local stores) from the previous urban tissue. A collage of spaces, large or small, placed at different levels, inside or outside, it can play the role of a weekly market, small library, after school, local pizzeria, dance studio or senior club. The building can be walked through as a micro-world, where neighbours with different interests and status are exposed to one another and as a result, they can demolish stereotypes and build stronger neighbouring relationships. The roof terrace is divided into personal gardens and common spaces, as a replica to a typical apartment block courtyard. The community centre represents only the periscope of an underground mega-structure that received both the garages and the social life that often develops around them. The parking is designed to communicate with the exterior through a washhouse and a service station and their correspondent discussion area, placed in the shade of the trees of the new neighbourhood park.
Author's presentation text
Andreea Muresanu is a young architect passionate about urban renewal and social architecture. Her interests include Russian literature and philosophy and eastern-european anthropology. Currently, she is interested in furthering her education in architecture and european culture, while gaining experience in the field.
