From the architect. Although in appearance brutal, obscure and arrogant, the Monolit Office Building is actually the result of a careful negotiation between concerns pertaining to the urban environment, the neighbouring park and a series of functional constraints. As far as urban fabric is concerned, the site, found on the border of a protected area was marked by the existence of two blind walls, an uncertain alignment to the boulevard and the presence of neighbouring designs of debatable architectural orientation and qualities. However, the spot offered the opportunity of an insertion into a high traffic, prestigious area of the capital. Marked by the presence of the protected area and the two, vastly diverging adjoining configurations – on the one side, the curtain wall of an office building, on the other the full, processed facade of a residential building – the buildable contour was that of a broken line, both horizontally and vertically, architecturally re-forged around a central element.
The major volume of the construction become a neutral, transparent backdrop that takes in the maximum possible amount of light and view over the park through a curtain wall that is uninterrupted by horizontal elements for the full height of the level, also serving in integrating the construction with the neighbouring buildings, while the third facade, a new invention, is encouraged to detach itself from the whole.
Architects: Igloo Architecture
Location: Bucharest, Romania
Architect Of Record: Oro Design (Oana Rădulescu, Gilda Ciobotăraşu, Răzvan Salomia)
Design Team: Bruno Andreşoiu, Adrian Ciocăzanu, Ana Dinuţă, George Barbu, Andrei Creangă
Area: 3600.0 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Courtesy of Igloomedia / Cosmin Dragomir
