Square One Interior Design

Carturesti Carusel

CARTURESTI CARUSEL

Square One

Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir

ARCHITECTS
Square One

ARCHITECTS IN CHARGE
Adrian Cancer-Zeana, Sabin Dumitriu

DESIGN TEAM
Ioan Vladescu, Vlad Cretu, Andrei Palita

RESTORATION
Capitel Avangarde

STRUCTURE
Pop & Asociatii

PHOTOGRAPHS
Cosmin Dragomir

AREA
1000.0 sqm

 YEAR
2015

LOCATION
Strada Lipscani 55, București, Romania

CATEGORY
Retail

Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir

Text description provided by architect.

The building is located in the old city center of Bucharest and has had a long and intricate history.

Built in the 19th century, it started out as a bank and then it became a clothing shop between the `50s and the `90s.

In the past 20 years, after the clothing shop closed, the building became slowly a ruin, before it regained life as a bookstore.

Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir

We saw it as a permanent shell and our intervention as a fragment in its history. Pieces of recent restorations were kept visible in our final design,

The concrete walls in the basement and several components of outline beams, as an expression of the building’s continuous metamorphosis.

Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir

Being a retail space, the main functional component is the furniture.

Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir

The height of the floors made possible the addition of intermediary platforms, serving as the stylistic elements that define and shape the space.

We had to play with the existing elements and find ways to create visual impact and sculptural value, while empowering the classical elements of the building.

We created an organic fluid form that winds through the existing structural elements, sometimes withdrawn behind the existing pillars and other times emerging in the spaces between them.

Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir

The platforms have a railing composed of equally spaced metal rods that follows the form and is both opaque and transparent, depending on the angle of view and the curvature of the shape.

We opted for a punctual lighting system with a warm spectrum. Seemingly random, the arrangement of luminaries has been calculated to fulfill the illumination needs of various products.

The image that inspired the artificial lighting design is that of a starry sky, like the one seen through the central skylight at night.

Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir


Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
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© Cosmin Dragomir
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© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
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© Cosmin Dragomir
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© Cosmin Dragomir
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© Cosmin Dragomir
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© Cosmin Dragomir
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© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
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© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir
Carturesti Carusel
© Cosmin Dragomir


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Square One Interior Design
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Square One Interior Design
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