‘Lecture by studioBASAR’

studioBASAR is a Bucharest (RO) based architectural studio and spatial practice founded in 2006 by Alex Axinte and Cristi Borcan.

By critically engaging the urban culture, studioBASAR seeks to reclaim overlooked spaces, support emerging practices and work with a wide range of actors for the recovery of the common good.
In a local urban context defined by radical privatisation, endemic distrust, decaying discourses of collective practices and top-down spatial production, studioBASAR’s architecture manifests as a tool for social transformation. Through research by design, place-making, co-design, co-production and civic pedagogy, studioBASAR constructs intermediary formats and builds spaces, which enable collaboration processes and foster users’ participation towards a more accessible and just city.

The studio reports on these various processes through different kind of projects such as the design of exhibitions (Romanian Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale, 2009), the publication of books (Evicting the Ghost. Architectures of Survival, 2010), the development of pop-up installations (Public Bath, 2014), the collaborations with civic groups (Tei Community Centre, 2016), the building of interdisciplinary live educational programs (City School, 2015), etc. The studio has been invited to work in the decommissioned Anthony Overton Elementary School in Bronzeville neighbourhood (Chicago, US) for the 2019 edition of The Chicago Architecture Biennial.

This lecture is held in the framework of Europalia Romania and will be given by Cristi Borcan with the focus on several public actions, community projects and educational programmes developed by studioBASAR in the public space of Bucharest.