Architect：MIRUNA STOICESCU

Category：Watch Towers;Exhibitions

Headline The Art Tower Pantelimon is a reconversion of a still functional water tower for art exhibitions and panoramic views over the typical East European neighborhood. Belonging to a former state owned factory in the dormitory neighborhood of Pantelimon, Bucharest, the Art Tower became quickly a landmark for the area.

Brief description Promoted by “Make a Point” Cultural Association in partnership with ING Bank Romania, the project aimed to transform the Tower into a cultural and geographic reference for the area. With over 1000 visitors in the first 3 days and more than 100 media references, the Art Tower becomes the symbol of a positive change in the “grey” neighborhood of Pantelimon, constructed during the communist regime.Along with its solid link to the context, another strong point of the Art Tower is its capacity to “belong” to everybody - starting from the team of constructors that fell in love with the stairway, to the visitors that refer to it as “our tower”.

Project description Although the project is “only a stairway”, its geometry was a tricky question. We decided that the main priority was creating a relation with the interior of the tower, a space with great potential meant to become a non-conventional art gallery. The position of the platforms is linked with the existing windows in the concrete cylinder that allow looking inside from an appropriate height.

As one climbs the stair, the exterior perspective becomes more and more interesting: the stairway leads to two platforms, one at 17 and the other at 24 meters height. The view over the city, from the Pantelimon district, is fundamental for understanding the East European city and the “dormitory” neighborhood. It is perhaps essential for interiorizing a city like Bucharest, that is hard to understand and should also be appreciated from its borders, not only from the center. The curatorial intention of the spiral stairway proposes a trace for this discovery.

Sustainable aspects The construction has very modest environmental impact. The structure iron structure is light and carefully designed to save resources – both money and material –as common IPE beans are cut in two and become variable section beans that follow the charge scheme of the structural elements.

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