A premium apartment building on Matei Basarab St., in one of Bucharest's protected areas (the “Labirint” district). On the plot stands a historic-monument house from the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, which had to be preserved — so the project is not just a new building, but a relationship between the new and the monument. PPAE carried the project from scratch: first drawing up the urban-planning documentation (PUZ), then the authorisation documentation. For a private client.

Challenges

Three layers of difficulty. Heritage and context: a protected built-up area, with a historic-monument house on this very plot, which required any intervention to conserve it and to be subordinate to it in terms of image. Engineering: for the basement parking, the excavation had to be shored on all sides, between existing buildings, without affecting the neighbours and the monument. And exacting standards: a premium area and product, where quality must show in every detail.

Solutions

The monument house was preserved, consolidated and re-partitioned for an office function, remaining the protagonist towards the street. The new housing building (B+G+4F) was designed to step back discreetly behind it: towards the street facade, facing the monument, it has no balconies, in order to soften its own presence and let the monument dominate; the balconies appear only on the sides, oriented into the property. The basement parking required shoring the excavation on all sides, and parking was resolved partly with independent semi-automatic systems, complemented by a shared access ramp negotiated with the neighbouring plot. The entire path — from PUZ to permit — was coordinated by PPAE.

Result

For the client, a premium address in a protected area, with a restored monument house as the signature of the place and a new building that enhances it rather than competing with it. For PPAE, the management of a project difficult on every front — heritage, urban planning, authorisation and complex engineering — carried coherently from the first urban-planning document through to the construction site.

Do you have a plot in a protected area, perhaps with a monument building to preserve, and want a partner to carry the project from urban planning to authorisation? The PPAE team can support you. Contact us