Summer Bucium University 2023

Authors’ Comment

"Summer University (UdV) 2023 - Histories, mortars, plasters and architectural decorations from old Bucharest"
Between July 10-16, 2023, the "Summer University (UdV) - Histories, mortars, plasters and architectural decorations from old Bucharest" organized by the Rencontres du Patrimoine Europe-Roumanie Association (RPER) and Ateliere Verde Pătrat took place in the Udriște area - The Jewish quarter.
The project is the continuation of the 10 editions (2011-2022) of the "Summer University (UdV) Bucium", organized by the RPER Association, a multidisciplinary training program in the field of the protection of unclassified rural heritage, aimed at saving the still existing but extremely fragile traditional values and to encourage the steps related to the identification, research, design, rehabilitation, reactivation and promotion of this heritage.

The 11th edition of the UdV transferred the experience accumulated during the 10 years in Bucium (Alba county) to a cultural space very different in appearance (the Historical Center of Bucharest), but which, in essence, launches the same challenges: the identification and understanding the specifics of the local constructive tradition, on the one hand, and, on the other, preserving and transmitting them to the future, through the guiding thread of the young generation (of architects, preferably).

The house on Căuzași Street, in the Udriște area (later, the Jewish Quarter), built around 1900 and partially remodeled in the Interwar period, offered for study a realization of the stylistic evolution that took place in Bucharest and in Europe, in just a few decades, from to Historicism to Art Deco and Modernism, with their diversity of conceptual, technical and decorative solutions. The building offered its authenticity, but also the wounds caused by people and time to a complex analysis: historical evolution, architectural relief, photographic documentation in situ, analysis and concept of the facade, typologies of mortars and plasters, decorative repertoire.

The activities within UdV 2023 familiarized the students (Architecture students in years III-V) with materials and techniques for preparing traditional mortars and plasters, compatible with the constructive characteristics of a historical building. By practicing these techniques, lost architectural details could be accurately reconstructed and also the context was created for young architects to think, for the buildings they will design in the future, of solutions involving traditional materials, with their advantages, related to permeability, environmental impact, cost and predictability in terms of behavior over time.
At the end of this common experience, an exhibition resulted with the architectural analysis boards, but also the parietal decorations, in the "sgraffito" techniques, "a fresco" or "a secco" painting applied on layers of lime-based mortar and various reinforcements (sand, silt, straw, chaff, wool), with which the participants of UdV 2023 marked their passage through the history of old Bucharest.