Grozăvești Student Cultural Centre – graduation thesis, July 2012 session, UAUIMThis project is a follow-up of the theme that I developed in order to participate in the architecture competition “Upgrade – continuity and change.”This project falls within the scope of inner-city industrial sites conversion.The location is in Bucharest, near Dâmboviţa River, on the site of the current heat plant that operates inefficiently – C.E.T. Grozăvești. The site is adjacent to the Botanic Garden, the Faculty of Biology, the “Cărămidarii de Jos” church, and Dâmboviţa River, while nearby there are student homes and the Politehnica University of Bucharest.The site can be identified on maps of Bucharest and its surroundings since the eighteenth century. Over the years, the lot passed from the church ownership to ownership of the county administration, for industrial use. Its purpose changed: the former agricultural land became the premises of the Power Plant.At the end of the nineteenth century, the Power Plant was build on this site; it was located on the (then) urban fringe – the Cărămidari suburb, Grozăvești village.Then, the Botanic Garden is founded nearby, the city expands according to the town planning; afterwards, in the twentieth century, the systematization of Dâmboviţa River is accomplished, student homes and university campuses are built in the area (the Politehnica University in Bucharest).In the twenty-first century, clusters of collective housing units and commercial buildings start emerging near the site and a fast walkway is built, linking the northern and the southern areas of the city.Bucharest expanded rapidly and this industrial site is now central relative to the new city fringes.Today C.E.T. Grozăvești is marked by a state of major malfunction compared to the neighbouring units: the Botanic Garden, the university campus, the Politehnica University – lodging and leisure.I suggest this project as a local solution with a global impact on a significant area in the city.I act on a certain point related to the entire area of the city and I generate a global reaction of urban and social regeneration.In my pre-diploma study I had an approach based on several different variants because this site allows for a very broad range of solutions both functional and composition-related. The site stands out for the four cooling towers, as can be seen from the image presenting the current situation.Studying the area, I found out that the silhouettes of the four cooling towers are etched in the memory of this place and of the people living around it. They couple the Grozăveşti area and the silhouettes of the four towers.There were two approaches: an introverted one, inside the towers, and an extrovert one, around the four towers.I then studied the possibilities of a functional solution: “filling” the volume of the four towers from 0% – tower left unused, 20% – used as a wind power electricity generator, 40% – exhibition space, 60% – space used for sports activities, and 80% – mediatheque.Another purpose of the proposed centre is to attract as many functions having a weak representation at local and national level. In Bucharest there is no mediatheque programme. The green areas, in the context of the number of inhabitants of Bucharest, are another problem – well below the EU average. The adequate exhibition spaces for state-of-the-artfields like electronic or kinetic arts, the spaces for modern sports or the student theme parks are very poorly represented at local level.The proposed project interconnects the current functions in the area by inserting certain new functions; it involves a remedial action for the existing malfunction and connects certain routes that are now choked by the Grozăveşti C.E.T.In so doing, a connection is made between the densely populated area and the zone with high green area densities by the interpenetration of the two distribution fields.The chosen scenario for development of the project is as follows:I have chosen the introverted approach because it provides visual as well as conceptual consistency by keeping the four cooling towers as a landmark.The four cooling towers receive new functions at local level – mediatheque, sports, electronic and kinetic art exhibition – and one of them will operate as a power electricity generator that powers the rest of the complex.Inside the towers the functions take the form of some structural metallic decks installed around a peripheral walking area in order to have a space as open as possible.In finding solutions for spaces, I had in mind the relationship between the newly built area and the existing space – decks that do the least harm to the tower shell both structurally and architecturally and provide a manifesto feature inside the towers as well as outside.Tower A – mediatheque, the ground floor and the first four floors, is the area open to the public – also has a panoramic elevator (the space for periodicals, computer search-media, the kids zone, the library, browsing, the study area), then there are the offices for the hybrid library and the archive;Tower B – sports-fitness, on the ground floor and the first floor, then three stories for climbing (on the tower wall there is installed a mineral surface on which one can climb about 15 meters), a sky cafe and a projection room;Tower C – gallery (meant to host electronic and kinetic art): on the ground floor there is a multifunctional hall with a capacity of 150 persons, then, inside the tower there is an open volume in which the kinetic art works are hanged or electronic art works are projected on the wall. The visitors can view the exhibits from some footbridges installed in such a way that they have a spatial perception of the art works. At the end of each footbridge there is an external deck from which one can see the Student Cultural Centre and the Botanic Garden;Tower D – wind power electricity generator: using the stack effect and the natural draft, four wind turbines generate power for the entire complex.At the basis of the towers the functional network form a general foyer of the complex, a park that envelops the hosted functions. Here one can find workshops, temporary exhibition spaces and a coffee house.I suggest that the buildings that border the compound (after an analysis of the styles and the conversion possibilities, I consider that they should be maintained) and that are now part of the heat plant should be included into certain museum programmes (hydraulic plant) and used as leisure spaces.The proposed Student Centre links the university campus area and the Botanic Garden area through a “park” of the student functions. The greenhouse area in the Botanic Garden that is now neglected will link to this park, forming an open-access secondary research circuit of the Botanic Garden.In conclusion, I believe that this project provides a sustainable recovery solution both within this area and for the entire city an can generate a response of positive renewal at the community level.