de Plano is an architectural studio that weaves creative passion into design services. They believe that architecture is primarily a cultural activity that channels and challenges established values. de Plano seeks balances between tradition and innovation, material and spatial qualities, construction and architectural narratives, while maintaining an openness to the opportunities and challenges that each project presents. Beginning with 2024 de Plano articulates the new partnership between Emil Burbea, Laura Covaci and Radu Ponta.

A rather small waggon house has been refurbished and extended by superimposing an independent volume upstairs. The issue that determined the idea of the project was the light. Given the configuration of the adiacent blind wall, which is approx. 10m high and situated on the entire southern plot limit, the waggon house received natural light only at sunset from Lipova street, located in the west. Therefore, maintaining the orientation of the vernacular urban tissue towards the South was no longer possible; moreover, maintaining a volume on the ground-floor only was unsuitable as well, because of the unlit and unhygienic indoor spaces it would have determined. In this context, raising the height of the new volume to the level of the southern blind wall was an objective necessity. The superimposition of the new volume was integrated with the setbacks and the geometry of the neighboring blind wall, so that the street image would not be affected by the new building. The new volume was setback by 2 meters from the northern plot limit so that a strip of skylights could be accommodated between the maintained blind wall of the waggon house and the first floor façade. The geometry of the vertical connection between the two superimposed volumes enabled the accommodation of an intermediary space at the mezzannine level, a desk with a metal railing that is as permeable as possible. The daytime interior spaces on the ground floor are oriented towards the small back garden. The presence of the neighbouring blind walls on two sides out of three has been improved by the introduction of a garden pavillion that responds to the storage necessities, contributing to the image from the garden. The pavillion has a triangular shape in order to adhere as much as possible to the existing blind walls, leaving the well-lit area in the corner of the garden to be planted. In this manner a depth of the entire plot has been achieved, with a perceptible succession of the spaces from the street to the end of the garden. All of the explained aspects are generated by the adaption to the complicated urban context, not only regarding the volume in relation to the neighbouring blind walls, but also in order to capture as much natural light indoors or in an effort to create a convivial image of the garden. This type of adaption continued in the choice of the finish materials, each selected according to its role, but also with the purpose of obtaining visual dialogues with the different vicinities.