Dorin Ștefan Adam is an architect and the founder of the office MÂNADELUCRU, which primarily operates in the fields of architecture and design. With a small team, the office relies heavily on a certain communication and closeness among its members; this leads to a personalized, highly punctual, and detailed approach to each project they handle, with increased attention to the direct requirements of the client and a solution that is as honest and accurate as possible.
He is an associate professor and doctor of architecture at UAUIM Bucharest, coordinating the design studio for second and third-year students. Through his academic guidance, he seeks to capture the necessity and role of architecture in a changing world and to instill in students the ability to respond personally to project themes.
As a curator of a series of art and architecture exhibitions, he has initiated a series of installations at the intersection of architecture and art, which capture the state of overlooked or forgotten built heritage. Recently, he co-founded the VICEVERSA association, a platform focusing on the dialogue between architecture and visual arts with the current issues of politics and society.
Project description in English
The conceptual approach of the office was to convince the parish representatives that the primary purpose of the upcoming project should not only be a space for religious purposes but primarily a space for the community, a place for everyone: a playground and classrooms, a cooking area, a library, a memorial space, a small icon museum; an outdoor area for various activities, distinct from the churchyard, a meeting place.
Decisions within a parish are made by both the parish priests and the parish committee. The challenging task was to convince 25 individuals with very different intellectual and cultural backgrounds and very diverse personal preferences that the church could have an impact on society through alternative means, not just through the worship of the liturgical cult.
The office's proposal was to build within a narrow space located between buildings and the church, thus emphasizing the narrowness of the boundary. This way, we began to inhabit and utilize the "leftover" space.
Before the construction of the buildings, the church had a much larger courtyard. Over time, this courtyard gradually diminished, eventually becoming the common courtyard of the buildings, the area from which access to the building entrances is made. In the communist era, churches were drowned in the socialist fervor of nation-building, systematically erasing any religious landmarks. After 1989, churches started to sprout everywhere at a rapid pace. This need to build was associated with a low-quality ecclesiastical architecture, using historical architectural models that were completely misunderstood and randomly placed without architectural cohesion.
The narrow and slender building is partially located on the property line and is set back from it by two concavities, designed to protect the existing trees, while also connecting to the postal alignment. In terms of dimensions, proportions, finishes, and colors, the building does not imitate the so-called canons of Orthodox church architecture, but it remains true to its purpose. The ground floor in the form of a portico, the wall texture, the brass crosses, the bells in the street-level belfry, the integrated candle holder within the narrow width of the building, make the proposed architecture eminently contemporary while remaining closely connected to the parish church.
