Built space
TC House
Author Name
Dragoș BocanProfession
ArhitectCo-authors (team members)
arh. Oliviu Râmneanțu, arh. Mihai Muntoiu, arh. Andrei SimonescuLocation
Arad, RomâniaClient
Termocontrol S.R.L.Budget
350.000 euro
Project description
Built in an older railway workers’ neighborhood in Arad, Romania, this new house replaced an old derelict building that had a northern facing façade towards the street. The character of the surrounding buildings was referenced by keeping a low profile with a low ground floor and a first floor enclosed in a sloped roof that has a slope similar to the nearby houses built after the second world war. Inside it, there are 3 bedrooms, one on the ground level and two on the top. The main theme of the interior is two storey living volume, with the living room and kitchen space extending to the roof planes. The two upper floor bedrooms are connected by a suspended walkway, that bridges the eastern and western sides along line between living and the cooking spaces. In order to introduce the light through the roof, twelve smaller roof skylights were used. They bring light inside the bedrooms and the day area, but also inside the upper floor bathroom and the technical space situated on the northern side of the pitched roof. They fit between the exposed roof structure elements without altering their normal placement. In order to achieve this exposed structure an above rafters roof insulation was used. The living room opens towards the southern courtyard through a panoramic window, that completely replaces a wall. The result is a building that lives though its contrast between an low key, horizontal exterior and a dynamic space, that extends vertically on the interior.
Author's presentation text
The partnership between the two architects with the same name became in 2004 a small design office, with many projects in the residential, medical and industrial areas. Other explored fields are two extremes, interior design and urban planning. Large housing projects were, at some point, on a high level, lately this program being just occasionally approached. The design of medium-sized hospitals and a private clinic meant a vast and specialized experience achieved with the integration of a quality architecture in very specific spaces. Industrial buildings, with technological processes and parameters determined by the nature of the activity, require teamwork with other specialists (structural engineers, mechanical installations, technologists, etc.). Residential houses followed a continuous path and they (still) are a way to explore and use up to date technologies to the specific requirements of beneficiaries, with increasingly detailed ways of architectural design.
