REDUX
reviving space + screen
Cluj, Romania
Summer 2025
Partners: Mircea Nastase + Tim Zhang
Summer 2025
Partners: Mircea Nastase + Tim Zhang
Keywords: Adaptive Reuse, Culture + Film, Community
Shortlisted - Buildned Re:Form Competition
Rooted in Cluj’s rich cinematic history, REDUX reimagines a monolithic, politically charged Communist film depot through the lenses of history, architecture, and film. Once a vessel for state-controlled propaganda, the authoritarian government used the building to collect, store, censure, and promote audiovisual media that enforced Communist ideals to the Romanian public. Through selective interventions, we reject the idea that such buildings are unsalvageable or frozen in their ideological past. Instead, we propose that architecture can confront and reclaim history; not by erasing it, but by layering new narratives onto old frameworks to transform the site into a porous, flexible cultural landmark.
A central corridor of activity slices through the heart of the building, both programmatically and symbolically opening it up. Curved walls of the restored entry lead visitors from the public plaza into a transitional gathering zone. Beyond, the main gallery anchors the space, flanked by galleries with pivoting walls that maintain the building’s essence and structure while allowing for reconfiguration. A new canopy at the rear adds space for open-air events, extending the museum back into the public realm. These architectural moves, pivoting partitions, retractable walls, and a sliding façade, engage salvaged materials to recreate architectural surfaces that support evolving programs for exhibitions, performances, and film screenings.
Materially, a refined palette of corten steel and glass distinguishes contemporary insertions from the original brick and plaster structure, emphasizing transparency and transformation. These moves not only extend the building’s physical life but also symbolically shift its meaning, from a once stagnant film repository to a collective expression of cinematic history. In reclaiming this structure, we argue for architecture’s role in rewriting narratives, turning relics of control into platforms for dialogue, memory, and creative freedom.
