Integration through co-presence – Câmpulung Cultural Center

Authors’ Comment

Co-presence is the simultaneous presence of layers made over time in one place. I chose the theme of the co-presence due to the location. The site is located in Campulung, near the city center. Here were the Kretzulescu Baths. Câmpulung was a market town, and it was developed along a central axis. In the past, there was this route from the Merci Public Garden to Kretzulescu Park, which is still preserved today, the main functions being concentrated along the Boulevard (Pardon boulevard). This route connects three very important points in the city: the public garden, the city center and the area where the site is located.
The identity of the area is given, mainly, by the park, but also by the old building. The challenge is to integrate the layers (individual elements that do not communicate - the old building, the river, the pedestrian walkway, the park) to reactivate that part of the city that has an important and considerable influence on it.
Câmpulung is a historic city, but it has no places to support cultural events. The main objectives were: making a pole of cultural reactivation, mediation between new and old, completing the city with necessary spaces and functions, promoting cultural elements, developing a tourism strategy, integration of a new element to reactivate existing layers, reconnection and reintegration of the park.
The project integrates the existing elements and becomes a route that connects them. Because the identity of the area is maintained by the park, I chose to extend it, and the project proposes a center of the park, which is formed at the intersection of the three arms that follow the boundaries of the site. The proposed volume is generated by 3 areas: the park, the city center and the river.
The proposed functions are: event space, library, co-working spaces, multifunctional space(markets, exhibitions, workshops), cafe, museum. All functions are connected by the roof that starts from the ground level and the highest point is where the event hall is located. The volume follows the limit of the park, and retreats to the river due to the train line. Also, the new intervention does not cover the old building, it works together (I proposed the conversion of the building into a museum).
The volume delimits three gardens: an urban garden, the park and a more private garden by the river. This accessible roof becomes a public space, an extension of the park, a route from where you can see a panorama of the natural elements around the site. this route offers different perspectives to the hills, mountains, river, city, the old building. At the highest point is an amphitheater. The old building is present for the first time and after that the new gradual volume is perceived.
Through my project I want to create a dialogue between past and present, between new and old. The building is configured by context, the building follows the existing limits and communicating with the surroundings.