Crick-o (concept)

Crick.o was my master's project at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca.

The project is a multisport facility in Moara Vlăsiei, a village near Bucharest, Romania.

We had no formal guide for our final project - we could decide what we wanted to work on.

My goal for my master's project was to work on an architectural design assignment that was 'real' (as in - there was a real interest to build the project I would design) which led me on a journey to find someone in Romania planning to build an architectural project of scale. I found that there is a Cricket Federation in Romania, and that they had a 50 year deal with the county of Moara Vlasiei to build cricket sport club. I asked for a meeting with the head of the club, learned what they wanted to build, then went to the Mayor House of Moara Vlasiei learned more about the site and project and finnaly came with a project formulation which included the Cricket Club but also an oina club (our Romanian national sport).

The design task was built around a real requirement, developed with both the Romanian Cricket Council and the Mayor of Moara Vlăsiei county.

Tutor: Mircea S. Moldovan
Total plot size - 17 ha;
Building area - 18.000 sqm

Moara Vlăsiei is 25 km North of Bucharest and became of real estate interest in the last years due to its closeness to the capital, the city’s two airports and a nearby highway. The site belongs to the county’s Mayor House and has been concessioned to the Romanian Cricket Council. The two institutions will collaborate in building a development on the 18 hectares. The cricket facility was a given in the design theme and will be the first built. The rest of the projects‘ components were decided after the site analysis and talks to the Mayor and officials.

Site characteristics:
- the forest is severely polluted due to daily based picnic oriented turism (motivated by the lack of forest-type parcs in the capitals’ proximity), is a remain of the Vlăsiei
Woods
- the river is a protected natural site, hosts numerous rare species, is sometimes subject to illegal fishing
- the village has a strong etnographical specificity; cricket has no place in the collective knowledge (yet?), oina, on the other hand, does.

There are many active cricket and oina clubs in the capital city area which makes the site suitable for such a development. The cricket club requirements included: a cricket field, a covered olympic sized swimming pool and a leisure swimming pool, a cricket hall, hotel rooms, a restaurant, the headquaters for the Romanian Cricket Council, locker rooms and sitting places. Additionally, and following site analysis and talks to the county’s employees - the project includes a forest type park (that meets the needs of the nearby city and protects the forest from unwanted pollution), an oina facility (the two sports are related) and tennis courts.