Victor Popovici, Silvia Tripșa

Author(s) / Team representatives

Victor Popovici, Silvia Tripșa

Profession

architect

External collaborators

ing. Sevastian SUSARU - diriginte santier ing. Bogdan TRIFA - rezistenta

Project location

Timișoara, Romania

Budget in euros

210000

Usable area

-

Project start date

May 2020

Construction completion date

October 2023

Client

Asociatia de Proprietari

Builder

RestauroTim Construct

Photo credits

Wienerberger srl, Ovidiu Micșa, Victor Popovici, Silvia Tripșa

Text presentation of the author/office in English

Studio Nomadic is an architecture office from Timișoara. The projects of the office are mainly focused on residential buildings and rehabilitation of historical buildings,nbut there are also works such as public space installations, light-art and exhibition design. Studio Nomadic consists of: Victor Popovici (b. Timișoara, 1974) Graduate from the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning in Timișoara and the course of Advanced Studies in Architecture on the subject of the rehabilitation of historical sites within the same institution, on which occasion he developed his passion for local history, culture and heritage. He is a founding member of OAR, former vice-president of the Romanian Order of Architects Timiș Territorial Branch and is a member of the Registry of Urban Planners in Romania. At the same time, he is involved in cultural projects focused on preserving the identity of Timisoara. Silvia Tripșa (b. Timisoara, 1988) Graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, within the Polytechnic University of Timișoara (2013), and later practiced as an architect in Romania, Austria and Chile. In 2017, he completed his master's studies in lighting at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. She is a certified designer of passive houses (Passive House Institute-PHI, 2020).

Project description in English

Built in 1907 according to the plans of the architect Laszlo Szekely, the Emmer Palace surprises with its French-inspired "1900" style, with a street facade richly decorated with numerous anthropomorphic and plant images, including a statue of a woman on the second floor. The entrance gangway and staircase, also richly ornamented, contribute to the coherent visual image. Its history is somewhat similar to that of most buildings of this type in the city: it was traded between several owners, after the war it was nationalized and turned into social housing. At the same time, the spaces on the ground floor were mutilated by dismantling the wooden panelling and changing the dimensions of the openings. After 2000, the ownership regime changed again, the building passed into private ownership, becoming a condominium. Over 55 years of neglect and incorrect interventions have had their say, the building being before restoration in a state of severe deterioration, at the level of the facade (fallen plaster, missing or degraded ornaments, incomplete statue, disproportionate ground floor openings), of the gangway of access and of the staircase (cast mosaic destroyed over 50%, cables and parasitic installations apparent) and of the roof (structural and rainwater infiltration problems). The restoration works were aimed at bringing the building to an image as faithful as possible to the original "1900" style, by identically restoring the architectural details and eliminating all parasitic elements. The works consisted of: - Restoration of the cladding and structural strengthening of the framework - Restoration of facade ornaments, by completing or replacing (where they were completely destroyed) with material identical to the original one, restoration of drawn profiles and plastering. The statue on the second floor was completely redone, according to the original model. - Restoring the original dimensions of the openings from the commercial spaces on the ground floor and the wooden panelling, uniform throughout the ground floor + mezzanine. - Restoration of the cast mosaic in the entrance gangway, the ornaments in the gangway and staircase, the balustrade and the identical restoration of the painted pattern on the ceiling of the staircase following the traces found during the works. All unused cables were removed, the ones in use were inserted into the walls. Junction boxes, electric meters, etc. were inserted into wooden masks. - A lighting system was introduced.