Dwelling house, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Architects: László Tulogdy, Gábor Tóthfalusi
Text: Katalin Moscu
Photos: László Tulogdy

Clients commissioning the house standing on the estate of civil servants named after Andrei Muresanu in Cluj-Napoca are wonderful young people for whom the proximity of the historic inner city was a priority when choosing the site and the real estate itself as it also had the prestige of being as advantageously tranquil as a peaceful housing estate. They wished to preserve he historic atmosphere and character of the house whilst extending it. As a result, they worked out a totally new system of functions with the designer. Four rooms of the old house facing the street were thus left in their original place in the new configuration of the interior and were extended by a new wing the basement of which now contains a spacious garage. The intention of designers was to unambiguously distinguish between the two masses of the building: although the functions of the historic house were transformed, the original ornamental details were preserved and the missing ones were replaced by new ones. The new wing features a facade clad in the materials typically favoured by the team of architects (playful brick facework, exposed timber struts), as well as in details that can be matched with features of the old building (such as the proportions of the windows, wrought-iron ornaments).

Architecture: Tektum Arhitectura&Arta
Leading architects: László Tulogdy, Gábor Tóthfalusi
Fellow architect: Ágnes Székely
Structure: Mihai Oltean
HVAC: Aurelian Marian, Paul Biris