Medresa, cultural center for Medgidia’s turkish-tatar community. Reintegrating the turkish bath into the urban circuit

Authors’ Comment

Dobrogea is a region renowned for its cultural diversity, home to a multitude of ethnic groups, including the Turkish-Tatar community, a large and close-knit group, though at risk of losing its traditions and values. With the desire to contribute to the preservation and promotion of this culture, the diploma project developed around a landmark of the community, the Muslim Seminary of Medgidia, which no longer exists, leaving behind only the Turkish Bath. Now in a state of neglect and decay, the bath still holds the memory of what was once the most important building of the Muslim community on Romanian soil. Thus, the diploma project aims to bring it back to life by designing a cultural center for the Turkish-Tatar minority, with the name "Medresa" serving as a metaphor in honor of the former seminary.

Studying the local specifics, which include a rich architectural heritage from the Ottoman period, as well as regional vernacular architecture, and the styles of the Balkan, Islamic, and Byzantine worlds, certain models emerged, such as the Balkan city, Ottoman social complexes like the "Kulliye," and the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela.

Since the old seminary was organized around an interior courtyard, this became the starting point of the project. The volumetric configuration was also influenced by the site's surroundings, somewhat hostile, consisting of communist-era collective housing aggressively inserted into an urban fabric predominantly made up of vernacular homes. Therefore, the proposed structure is represented by two enclosures, one smaller— in memory of the former seminary—dedicated to cultural and educational workshops on Turkish and Tatar arts and crafts (Turkish, Tatar, Arabic languages, ebru painting, miniature painting, mandolin, engraving, etc.), and a larger enclosure intended for public cultural activities (a performance hall, a café, a craft ceramics workshop, spaces for events and exhibitions, and a dance hall). The latter incorporates the Turkish bath, repurposed as an ethnographic museum, centered around a meditation space, the central element, "carved" into the site. To avoid compromising the integrity of the bath, a historical monument, the connection to it will be made through an underground passage, with the dome of the meditation space visible along the axis of the two entrances. The basement, inspired by the Basilica Cistern, houses a series of exhibition galleries surrounding the meditation space. The workshops, in the form of wooden volumes, overlap with the stone "base," creating the atmosphere of Balkan streets through varying heights and overhangs.

The visual design of the project is also derived from traditional sources, using specific materials—limestone and wood—in an exposed manner, referencing traditional Anatolian and Balkan architecture, as well as local Ottoman-style architecture, through the modern adaptation of characteristic features (glass-paneled walls, wooden shutters, wooden carvings, etc.). For a mystical ambiance, evoking the Islamic nature of the concept, symbolic elements were introduced, such as the arched portal transitioning between the city and the medrese enclosure, or the dome covering the meditation space, indicating its position and importance. In memory of the former Muslim seminary, a play of textures and shades was created in the pavement, marking its exact past location.