Atelier Vrac

Zenaida Florea and Cristi Badescu both graduated from the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism in 2019 and have since followed individual yet complementary paths, contributing to a diverse range of architectural projects across scales and typologies.

Zenaida is currently a Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant at the Ion Mincu University, having worked over the years with first-, second-, and third-year design studios. Her academic pursuits are enriched by practical experiences, including internships in Nanjing and Istanbul. Since graduation, she has been involved in a wide spectrum of projects, from large-scale architecture competitions to small-scale, more intimate interventions like exhibitions and temporary installations.

Cristi, likewise a Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant, focuses primarily on first-year design studios. After graduation, he joined the Bucharest-based architecture office POSTER, where he worked until recently. In 2021, Cristi, together with the POSTER collective, curated the Romanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with the project Fading Borders, which explored the socio-spatial effects of Romanian labor migration.

Together, Zenaida and Cristi operate at the intersection of civic initiatives, education, research, and architectural practice. They treat each project as an opportunity for critical inquiry and spatial experimentation, with a particular interest in temporary installations and exhibition formats.

The FID – Football as Infrastructure for Democracy project, initiated by Casa Jakab Toffler and designed by Zenaida Florea and Cristi Badescu, was nominated for the 2024 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Awards. More recently, their temporary installation Susur (Temporary Installation at a Mountain River) was nominated for the 2026 edition of the same prize. Their collaborative practice is named VRAC – meaning “in bulk” – a concept that embodies their methodology of collecting and working with raw, unsorted ideas: a flexible, layered approach to space, narrative, and participation.