Bogdan Isopescu, Cristian Bădescu, Gabriel Boldiș, Laura Borotea, Alexandru Ciobotă, Zenaida Florea, Olimpia Onci

Author(s) / Team representatives

Bogdan Isopescu, Cristian Bădescu, Gabriel Boldiș, Laura Borotea, Alexandru Ciobotă, Zenaida Florea, Olimpia Onci

Profession

arhitect, artist vizual, peisagist

Collective/office

Asociația Casa Jakab Toffler, ISO Birou Arhitectura SRL, Atelier Olimpia Onci SRL, Atelier Vrac SRL

External collaborators

Voluntari: G Pop,P Cionca-Arghir,D Bulc,T Suciu,T Rațiu,A Nagy,D Hăbuc,C Micle,D Vicol, A Tofalvi,R Rosza,D Dărăban.

Project location

Piața Traian, Timișoara, România

Budget in euros

20000

Area

800

Project start date

Iunie 2023

Construction completion date

Iulie 2023

Client

Casa Jakab Toffler

Builder

Simbol Garden SRL - ing. Zsolt Matefi

Photo credits

Marius Vasile

Text presentation of the author/office in English

The Jakab Toffler House Association is an initiative of the tenants of the homonymous building located on Strada Constantin Titel Petrescu no. 4, from Timișoara, established with the aim of generating new forms of social interaction between the current tenants of the building, in a direct relationship with the concept of housing - from its physical dimension to the symbolic one. In addition to stimulating interaction with the living space, the urban and cultural landscape, the association aims, sustainably and with care for the natural and built environment, to boost social dynamics, belonging to the neighborhood, strengthening relations between micro communities and those of the neighborhood. The Jakab Toffler House promotes the identity of each person in the community as part of an urban ecosystem, the removal of cultural, racial, ethnic, religious or sexual discrimination, promotes multi-ethnic and cultural exchange and the valorization of the material and immaterial heritage of the Fabric neighborhood.

Project description in English

F.I.D. was created by a group architects, landscape engineers and visual artists, some of them being residents of the Fabric district. It manifested between the physical boundaries of a participatory architectural installation and the Fair-Play code of football – a horizontal sport that promotes the team and the collective, while levels the relations between social classes, both among players and spectators. The installation was composed of a multi-functional scaffolding and a mini-soccer field, both serving the community as a symbolic agora where free expression, community gestures, and democracy were performed. The scaffold transformed from one edition to another, having a discreet presence and fulfilling the role of supporting a series of pretexts-signals: the flags of the teams, the colors of the tournament, the display of the scoreboard, the time, the ambient lighting at night, or other unintended functions such as a bike rack. The soccer field itself had a general size of 25 x 15m, being appropriate for 5 vs. 5 games. It was made of natural grass turf rolls placed on a sandy soil bed, on top of the existing cobblestone. It was the main organism of the intervention that evolved and transformed during the entire period of its existence. It hosted a tournament between mixed gender teams from the neighborhood, but it was also used spontaneously as a playground for neighborhood children, evening parties , movie-night, exhibition, gathering spot in general, as it aroused the interest of the community and the passer-by. Both the scaffolding and the turf rolls were reused in other construction projects. F.I.D. offered a stage for participation and the possibility for the neighbors to be both protagonists and audience. The spatial and cultural disparities of the neighborhood were transformed, resulting in a positive collective experience that gave a playful and affective communal memory. As people shared it trough social media, the Traian square was perceived as a celebration of the actual diversity and it provided a platform for the actual residents to engage together and to contribute to the community's collective identity. The atypical presence of natural grass appealed to a collective utopian imaginary in which an urban square becomes a green oasis. This different stance of the Traian Square allows the opening to multiple other scenarios of use, which were not available and taken into account until now.