Image Laboratory – Visual Culture

Authors’ Comment

The idea for this project stemmed from a sad reality, visible daily in Bucharest: classic cinemas have been completely removed from the city center. Starting from this premise, the project proposes the revitalization of the former Leonida Garage (7-13 Luterană Street) by transforming a former infrastructure dedicated to mechanical movement into a complete visual ecosystem. In a city defined by transit and fragmentation, this space becomes a necessary pause, an integral laboratory where the image is produced, analyzed, archived, and broadcasted, where every component of the ensemble directly supports the artistic process. The concept explores architecture as a liminal space, a transition zone between the city and creation, where ideas take shape through the interaction between the academic environment, professional practice, and the public. The main challenge of the site consists of preserving the industrial identity of the existing structure and reconfiguring its volumetry without altering its spatial memory.

The heart of the project is the inner courtyard, a space that follows the orientation of the old wing of the garage demolished in 2003, functioning as a landmark that recalls that vanished area. Designed as an open courtyard, a "room without a ceiling", with green areas and bleachers, it functions as an open-air cinema. This reconfiguration is closely linked to the "Anonimul" International Independent Film Festival. Through the inner courtyard, the open and free atmosphere of the festival in the Danube Delta is brought directly into the dense center of the capital, the space becoming an active meeting point between the urban community and filmmakers.

Spatially, the project is governed by a clear separation between obscure and illuminated areas. Spaces requiring impeccable acoustics and controlled darkness, such as cinemas and film sets, are configured as compact black-box volumes. Mediating and directly linking these bodies positioned on the site, the Connecting Gallery generates open spaces, ample and bright foyers intended for social interaction, debates, and meetings.

The Broadcasting Pole represents the main public interface, configured to receive large flows of visitors. It integrates the foyer, three cinemas of varying sizes (175, 110, and 60 seats), and the large 340-seat Auditorium. Above this core rises the Archive Tower, a specialized volume on three levels dedicated to film storage, the print archive, media research, and an active memory space that functions as an urban satellite of the National Film Archive.

Constructively and materially, the project proposes a close dialogue between historical layers and the new intervention. As a testimony to the site's industrial past, the remaining structure of the demolished former hall was preserved and integrated with the role of a witness. Within the proposal, the architectural character is defined by the expressiveness of exposed concrete, combined with metallic elements and glass surfaces.

The "Image Laboratory – Visual Culture" proposes an urban regeneration model based on active cultural production. By integrating education, industry, and the archive into a single coherent system, articulated and unified by the power of the Connecting Gallery, the project redefines the relationship between the city and the image. It is not just a space for cultural consumption, but a living infrastructure that produces, preserves, and distributes content, contributing to the consolidation of Bucharest's creative identity.