From Commercial Exchange to Cultural Exchange. The “Anghel Saligny” Halls in Botoșani

Authors’ Comment

A city centre loses its identity when it ceases to be a place of encounter. In Botoșani, the “Anghel Saligny” Halls, a listed historic monument in direct relation with the Old Town and located at the end of the city’s central pedestrian axis, have gradually lost their urban role, becoming a space of transit, despite their strategic position between the historic core and the contemporary city.

The project proposes the transformation of the halls into a community cultural centre, based on the concept of the pause: interrupting a continuous route to create a place for stopping, meeting, conversation and events. At the urban scale, an underused former commercial space near the halls is replaced by an urban square that opens up the view towards the monument, restores the visual and functional connection between the Old Town and the halls, and provides the city with a public space. Through this gesture, the city’s pedestrian axis, which begins in the historic Old Town and ends at the halls, is reactivated. The open space between the two monuments is marked by the insertion of a white meeting pavilion, subordinate to them and serving as a threshold for the main entrances to the two halls and the new entrance to the underground extension of the main hall.

The larger hall becomes a bookshop and reading space. An independent timber volume, inserted between the original columns and conceived as a “house within a house”, integrates the library into its own structure and organizes a route through which the books are gradually discovered. Inside, the original metal structure, restored and repainted in pale green, remains the first element perceived, while the new volume is distinguished from it through material and scale. The basement houses an art gallery and a reconfigurable multimedia hall, designed to accommodate different layouts and cultural events. The smaller hall becomes a bistro, functionally connected to the neighbouring food market and to the circulation of local produce.
The interventions to the monument are reversible and independent from the existing structure: the new programme is introduced through autonomous volumes and structures, keeping the reading of the historic halls clear. The materiality establishes a controlled contrast between old and new: the restored metal structure and original flooring preserve the character of the building, while timber brings warmth and contrast to the interior.

The intervention preserves the historic vocation of the halls as places of exchange, while changing its nature: from commercial exchange to cultural, social and community exchange. Thus, the halls are returned to the city.