Film center, rehabilitation and reactivation of Blanduzia Galleries

Authors’ Comment

The site is located at the intersection of Doamnei and Academiei streets, in an area with a profound historical background tied to Bucharest cinema. In the early 20th century, this plot was home to the Blanduzia Gardens featuring open-air screenings, the first purpose-built cinema in Bucharest named Volta built in 1909, followed by Apollo and Doina cinemas, alongside the commercial complex of the Blanduzia Galleries. Subsequent decline and demolitions transformed a substantial part of the land into an unpaved parking lot. From the historic built fabric, only the former Doina Cinema with its facade listed as a Class A historic monument, as well as the building of the former store "La cei trei ursuleți", have survived.
The project aims to reactivate this cultural vocation by establishing a Film Center. The primary intervention involved removing parasitic structures and highlighting the two preserved buildings. Addressing the fragmentation of the site and the presence of numerous blind walls, the design articulates two compositional directions, namely a perimetral volume that reconstructs the street front in accordance with protected zone regulations, and a dominant volume emerging along the highest blind wall to mark the heart of the plot. A pedestrian passageway pierces through the street facade, generating two visual axes, one towards a public garden evoking the historic Blanduzia Gardens, and the other leading toward the new cinema hall.
The spatial concept is structured around a continuous promenade, a dynamic and cinematic sequence of pathways that seamlessly connects all functions. The basement accommodates archive spaces, film restoration laboratories with independent access, and a double-height exhibition space set below the main auditorium. The ground floor acts as an open public space visually connected to the courtyard through glazed facades, incorporating a café, a film shop, a study area, and the primary entrances, while the former Doina Cinema houses a screening bar and a small dedicated screening room. The upper levels feature the cinematheque, the museum of Romanian cinema, the main auditorium, and three secondary screening rooms.
In terms of material expression, the upper volumes are clad in translucent concrete. This material filters daylight into a diffuse atmosphere and reveals the movement along the internal promenade at night, with the ability to function as an urban projection surface through integrated LED systems.
The project returns a vibrant cultural hub to the city, reconciling the cinematic memory of the Blanduzia Gardens with contemporary public space through a permeable, integrated, and community-driven intervention that reactivates the historic identity of downtown Bucharest.