STREMAH 2009, Tallinn

1. The innovation in the plan of the current floor:
Zoning in blocks of flats for the middle class in
the first half of the 20th century
Maria BOSTENARU DAN
ERGOROM ’99
and
“Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning

2. Overview
 Introduction
 Research methodology
 Originality and innovative nature of the project
 Timeliness of the project
 Research results
 Romania
 Italy
 Greece
 Conclusions

3. Introduction
 Morphological elements of a system
 Container: the frame of spaces, related in
functional-spatial co-operation into the spatial
structure (physical level)
 Contents: activities (phenomenologic level)
 The activity dimensions a space
 Modern Movement: look for new housing
more solving of society problems than
aesthetics

4. Introduction
 1933 Athens Charter
 1934 Master Plan in Bucharest
 Reinforced concrete and flexibility –
materials, multidisciplinarity
 In this study: blocks of flats for the middle
class – sociology of architecture

5. State of the art in research
 Ákos Moravánszky: former Austro-
Hungarian empire
 János Bonta and John Macsai (Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Poland)
 Richard Etlin, Annegret Burg (Novecento):
Italy, Bruno Zevi and Daniel Libeskind:
Giuseppe Terragni

6. State of the art in research
 Horia Creangă, Marcel Janco centenaries,
Duiliu Marcu own book
 Last year: NEC seminar on Modernism in
the Balkans, Rudolf Fränkel exhibition,
urban route Marcel Janco (e-cart.ro)
 Greek architecture in the 20th century
(Savos Condaratos)

7. Research methodology
Nr
.
Objective Method Instruments
1 Documentation Literature
Field
archive
Check-lists
Photography
schemes
2 Comparison Comparison tree criteria
3 Model Systemic analysis Inventory of spaces
Project management
4 Definition of the
character of a zone
texture morphology
5 Characteristics to be
maintained
Classification of elements Data tables
drawings
6 Lessons learned Social participation indicators
7 Dissemination Public presentation Conferences, journals,
web

8. Originality and innovation
 Former studies: facade and style
 Fostering innovation in the employment of
construction materials, especially in
housing construction
 Switch of values: Novecento instead
Italian Rationalism

9. Originality and innovation
 Other Modernisms
 Difference Modernism – Avantgarde
 Multi-family condominium housing as field of
the modern architecture and not siedlungen
as in classic modernism
 Character of the zone
 Textures, human activities
 Social purposes today: participatism,
environmental problems

10. Timeliness of the project
 Other focus than existing publications
 Comparative study of typologically related
buildings (architectural programme: block)
not in geographically close areas
 Lessons for restoration interventions today
 Lessons for new buildings

11. Research results: Romania
 Impact of apartment buildings bigger than
any other housing
 Strong economy, private enterprise
 Deviations from mainstream movement
dicated by the market
 Condominium, like in Greece, until today
 Double entrance
 Ottulescu building: free plan in an apartment
block

12. Research results: Romania

13. Romania

14. Research results: Romania
Elena Ottulescu
building, architect
Horia Creang ,ă
1934-35
Bedroom / night zone
Living room, including dinning
Corridors / circulation zone
Bathrooms, toillets
Kitchen
Hall / vertical circulation
Deposit / external circulation
Legend:

15. Research results: Italy
 Two directions
 Rationalism (contextual Modernism)
 Giuseppe Terragni
 Novecento
 Decorative
 Geometrical
 Novecento: function bound housing
typologies, condominium
 Zoning: function groups, double entrance

16. Research results: Italy
 Giuseppe Terragni - Como
Photos 2005

17. Research results: Italy
 Giuseppe Terragni - Milano
Photos 2005

18. Research results: Italy
 Novecento
Photos 2007

19. Research results: Italy
 Novecento
Photos 2007

20. Research results: Italy
 Novecento
Building in Via Domenichino,
architects Lancia i Pontiş
1928-30
Liv in g ro o m , d in n in g
Ba thro o m , to ile ts
Kitche n
Ha ll
C o rrid o rs / circu la tio n z o n e
De p o sit
Be d ro o m / Nig h t z o n e

21. Research results: Greece
 1929 – ownership system for multistorey
apartments
 Housing in private hand, seen to be unique,
but similar to Romania and Portugal
 Training in Germany, little in France
 zonation
 Zaimi and Stournary street example: „ressemble
Italian rationalism“ – to be investigated
 Double entrance

22. Research results: Greece
Photos 2005

23. Greece
Bedroom / night zone
Living room, including dinning
Corridors / circulation zone
Bathrooms, toillets
Kitchen
Hall / vertical circulation
Deposit / external circulation
Legend:
building on Zaimi
and Stournari
streets, architects
Valentis and
Michailidis,
1933 – 1934

24. Discussion
 Seismic vulnerability:
 Flexibility of RC, irregular parcels
 Irregularity of plan
 Integrate modern buildings into city routes
across Europe (Bucharest, Ivrea, Ljubljana)
 Retrofit and restoration
 More aging restoration at Rationalism than
Novecento
 Example for social multifamily: Germany

25. Discussion

26. Discussion

27. Discussion
 Social block housing in Vienna, Austria
(photos 2009)

28. Discussion
 Social block housing in
Germany (photos 2002)

29. Conclusions
 PIANO project set-up and first results
 Other modernisms: social housing in the
West, rapid economic development in
Bucharest, Athens, Milan but also Lisbon
 Break with single family housing
 Reinforced concrete: subject of another
paper

30. Acknowledgements
PIANO project
MERG-CT-2007-200636
European Commission (Marie Curie)

31. Thank you for your attention