Conversion of the former Bragadiru brewery

Authors’ Comment

The diploma project proposes the adaptive reuse of the Bragadiru Brewery and Palace complex in Bucharest. Located between Calea Rahovei and George Coșbuc Boulevard, the site lies within the Rahova–Uranus area and stands as a witness to the once-present Spirii Hill, whose topographical presence has been largely erased over time. The architectural intervention addresses local residents, traders, and tourists alike, aiming to unite these three user categories by resolving a complex functional program.
The conceptual approach began at the urban scale, by identifying the compositional axes within the surrounding fabric and intersecting them with the spatial configuration of the industrial ensemble, composed of eight buildings constructed in different stages and aligned differently throughout time. By establishing an operational system based on geometric procedures – juxtaposition, superposition, and intersection – the transformation followed a rational logic, and each new architectural element, from added volumes to the floor paving layout, was articulated according to the axes of composition derived from scale, rhythm, and the qualities of the existing built fabric.
The project is grounded in several key premises: the creation of expressive intermediate spaces between the city and the architectural bodies of the ensemble; the continuation and encouragement of urban vegetation as it relates to architecture and users; the elimination of physical barriers caused by the terraced nature of the site through accessibility strategies; and the introduction of additions that allow for multiple modes of use.
The proposed functional program can be categorized into three main directions: commercial, educational, and agronomic. Among these, the project develops the educational pole and partially the commercial one. The two buildings that formerly housed the brewhouse and the main production hall date back to the first construction phase, in 1894–1895. These two recovered structures are reintegrated into the functional circuit and now accommodate a small-scale brewery with public-facing functions and a retail area at ground level, co-working spaces, a culinary school, a restaurant, and an outdoor structure designed for multiple uses such as a temporary market, events, or as an extension of the seedling market to which it is connected.