1930s Bucharest Art Deco house designed by Italian architects. Calea Calarasi area. (©Valentin Mandache)
A couple of weeks ago, in one of my field days in Bucharest, I came across, this well proportioned and attractive Art Deco style house. I spoke with the owner and his family, who were extremely kind and had shown me the house, which still preserves most of its original exterior and interior features and decorations. They mentioned that the building has been designed by Italian architects and built by an Italian construction firm in the second part of the 1930s. I knew about the Italian influence on the local inter-war architecture, especially as regards to what I call the Venetian style, but was much less aware about the scale of the direct involvement of Italian architects and construction companies in the Bucharest building scene of that time. That information had the role to put sense within the disparate bits and pieces of information which I gathered from the archives and field observations about the Italian presence here. They seem to have contributed in quite an important measure to the design and building of many of the city’s Art Deco style edifices. That is an interesting chapter of the Italian architects’ and constructors’ creations in the Art Deco style in many regions of the world from Eritrea, Dodecanese Islands of Greece, Albania to Romania, etc. It is a phenomenon which I hope to find out more data about for a more extensive future article.
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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.
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If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.
