Skanska Design Competition

Epstein submitted a response to Skanska for a design proposal in 2021 for a new Bucharest office development. In collaboration with our Romania team, Epstein created a conceptual design for Skanska’s consideration that demonstrated high design and provided functionality.

The design concept integrated a coherent business park across all buildings of both land plots included at the site. The project proposed three phases (buildings), each fully independent, including the underground garage, to provide flexibility and the ability to sell as separate buildings, obtain separate building permits, and allow for independent access to each.

In regards to HVAC, the conceptual buildings included a hot water plant and low-pressure hot water distribution by way of boilers. Similarly, a cooling plant and would provide chilled water distribution. Also incorporated were an air conditioning and ventilation system. All proposed lighting fixtures were LED sources with high efficiency. The inclusion of motion sensors and time control provided for efficient power consumption.

The proposed site was the former home of Dacia Textile, a local textile manufacturing company. By 1938, almost 18,000 workers were employed by the textile industry in Romania. Without a doubt, Dacia Textile contributed to the lives of thousands of workers and locals, and was likely responsible for the original development of the immediate neighborhood. That being said, detailed brick masonry work and arched factory-like window storefronts were introduced at the podium to capture the materiality, geometry and the spirit of the industrial building. The design team also began to investigate the very thing that Dacia was producing - textile.

Epstein’s team decided to tell a story about context and place through architectural expression. The efficient industrial grid of the factory was expressed on the building façade (this was a converging idea to our need for an efficient and cost effective building).

Textile weaving ("vava" in Swedish) pattern grids are always the same, but the textile patterns generated from them are complex and almost infinite. Epstein used this same approach.

A simple grid façade and overlaid a pattern of green terraces and metal textures generated variety and interest to the façade. In other words, the facade’s complexity comes from what you weave over it.