SINCRON: Space for creation and education - a new headquarters for the National Dance Centre, Bucharest

Authors’ Comment

Located at 21 Berzei Street, the project proposes a new headquarters for the National Center of Dance Bucharest (CNDB), featuring spaces dedicated to the education, production, and promotion of contemporary dance.
The proposal addresses two main issues. The first is functional: CNDB currently operates across multiple locations and has only one performance hall, which is undersized for the institution's needs. Simultaneously, the "Floria Capsali" Choreography High School operates in a building that was not designed for the modern requirements of choreographic education, lacking adequate changing rooms, sufficient rehearsal studios, and a dedicated performance hall. The second issue is urban. Although the site is central and well-connected to the city, it acts as an enclave occupied by dilapidated garages and parking lots. The urban context is an overlap of low-rise historical housing, high-rise communist-era apartment blocks, and important cultural and educational institutions. On the northern boundary lie the Secondary School of Arts No. 3 and the "Saint Stephen – Stork's Nest" Church, a historical monument saved from demolition by being relocated behind the intersection's apartment block.
At the urban level, the project opens up the site by removing the degraded structures and surface parking, introducing five additional access points to increase permeability. The level difference of approximately 5 meters is used as a green cornice that follows the northern edge, creating a green corridor towards the Opera Park. The relationship with historical landmarks is strengthened by eliminating parasitic parking and designing shared public squares: a study and relaxation area for the school, and a small plaza near the church. The height regime acts as a mediator between the high-rise blocks and the low-rise housing fabric.
The functional program is organized into four components. The main volume brings together the large performance hall, two smaller halls, rehearsal studios, specialized workshops, a restaurant, and recreation spaces. The volume at the rear of the plot serves as an experimental hub, including an immersive hall and exhibition spaces. The two structures are connected underground by a makerspace designed for interaction with related creative fields. The tower, relating to the height of the adjacent high-rise blocks, houses a wellness and recovery center for artists and the public, alongside living spaces for artists in residence. The low-rise volumes on the southern edge resolve the transition to the residential fabric and the party wall connection, incorporating commercial spaces that activate the street frontage of the newly proposed street.
The architectural concept is driven by transparency, both in terms of materiality, using a glass and metal envelope that reveals the opaque volumes of the performance halls, and in its stance on the relationship between art and the public. The visibility of the rehearsal spaces, workshops, and circulation areas reduces the separation between the artistic process and the public, bringing dance closer to everyday life. In contrast to this transparency, the main hall is treated as a massive volume clad in translucent stone, becoming a luminous landmark that signals the center's presence in the city at night.
Through this organization, SINCRON proposes not only a suitable infrastructure for dance, education, and artistic production, but also the reclamation of a degraded central site, transforming it into an accessible and permeable urban space