Museum of Romanian Cinematography in Old Town - Bucharest, Romania

Spiru Haret University, Faculty of Architecture, Bucharest

Project idea

The main idea of the project was to make a conversion of function in the Old Building (Monument) of Cinema Capitol from Bucharest. Currently the building is in an advance state of degradation and the building needs a quick restoration to save it.

Project description

The old function of the building was a Cinema. The most valuable cinema from Bucharest in the interbelic and postbelic period. The building is in an advance state of degradation and is necessary a quick intervention for save it. In my project I proposed a conversion of the old function ( Cinema) into a new function (Museum of Romanian Cinematography). The old building had only two levels and I proposed a vertical extension with other new three levels. The building has the only public summer garden in Bucharest, and I set out to use this garden as an open space Cinema where people can see for example documentary with Old Bucharest and/or with History of the Romanian Cinematography.
The old Building had a vertical signal, which collapsed in 1977 due to an earthquake of 7.2 on Richter scale. Now I have proposed a new signal, but on this time this will have the function of an elevator. The main facade is a neutral one, finished with wooden slats, which made the building integrate into the historical site.

Technical information

The building being in an advance state of degradation and the structure of it being too in the same situation I decided to keep the facades of the building which have an historical value and I recreated the interior space with a new hided metalic structure which made possible the vertical extension with other three levels.