july 2009 |"Modern" Cinema & Cultural Center, Suceava, Romania| competition entry - second prize | professional render 3D ARTIST arch. STEFAN ALDEA

The competition has been held by the City Hall, in order to create a new Cultural Center for the city of Suceava, one of the largest in Romania, ancient capital of the historic Moldavia region. To achieve this goal, the existing "Modern" cinema building will be consolidated and new functions will be added, to reach a total of 2500sqm area.The existent ground floor and 1st floor house the cinema hall and a stage, together with public and technical areas. The new addition to the building will host the competition required spaces of: artists' rooms, for orchestra, ballet and kids' theater; cultural area: library, exhibition spaces and a cafe; and the Center administration offices. The cinema hall stage will also be used for music, dance and other perfomances to be showcased by the center. The existing cinema is located in a busy square, surrounded by low-height buildings.
EXISTING BUILDING |

SOLUTION A |Solution A provides an administration and artists acces on the left side of the building, within a new metalic structure, to reach first and 2nd floors.The exhibition, library and cafe are accesed by a vertical circulation shaft located on the right side of the building,
  

SOLUTION B |Solution B uses the vertical circulation located at the rear of the stage for the administration and artists, while proposing a tower for the public acces to the cultural center activities.

The main public entrance to the cinema is very strongly signaled by a staircase. We analysed the existing building and the requirements of the program and proposed:
-to preserve the simple and clear box-like volume of the building; we proposed an exterior wooden cladding that would resonate with the near-by hillside background that the city is set in;
-meeting the space requirements, while keeping with the surrounding buildings' height: we proposed an additional 2nd floor and a partial 3rd floor that would also receive a terrace for the public, near the cafe;
-solving the entrances to the center: keeping and remodelling the main public acces to the stage from the square, and proposing two other, separate, entrance points: for administration and artists, and one for the public of the cultural day-to-day activities: library, exhibitions.
The new 2nd and 3rd floors structure is a metalic box system made of: metals studs and metal trusses, with corrugated metal panels and reinf.concrete slabs. The metal boxes are sustained on the masonry perimetral walls of the existing building, and on new reinf.concrete pillars within the existing masonry walls.

credits: structural engineer:dipl. eng. Mihai Radut - Ingenium Construct | mechanical engineers: dipl.eng. George Cristescu - Instal Design