NTB Reconstruction

An interview given by Adriana Popescu, from the Department of Cultural Strategies, Communication and PR for the Adevărul newspaper Statement of principle: Regarding the institutions under the ferule of the Ministry of Culture, that have shared the same working space with the Bucharest National Theatre until recently – NCDB (The National Centre of Dance Bucharest) The Ion Dacian National Operetta Theatre, NMCA(The National Museum of Contemporary Art) – the main interlocutor who can give authorised answers to your questions is, actually, the ministry in question. These institutions will not function - after the building's renovation – in the space that will be exclusively owned by The I.L.Caragiale National Theatre. The relocation of these institutions is within the exclusive attributions of the tutelary ministry.   *** Adevărul: When will the renovation work of the National Theatre start?A.P. The first delivery of the necessary emplacement for the organization of a work-site has been carried into effect on March 16th 2011.Adevărul: We know that "Lăptăria lui Enache" and the terrace "La Motoare" were closed this week.A.P. At the end of the project, the Lăptăria lui Enache Pub will receive a much more adequate space for its recent activity. The outdoors arena on top of the NTB building will host 300 viewers and will allow the prolongation of the season even during summer time.Adevărul: Will any other spaces within the National Theatre's building be closed?A.P. It is possible that in the renewal stage of the public space (lobby), the Great Hall (but not the stage!) will be temporarily closed. We take into account the fact that in that stage of things, we should only allow the performances that can fit the scene, with the public being sat on the side seats.During the deployment of work, the access to the parking lot in front of the theatre will not be possible. The viewers may use, as they have until now, the Intercontinental underground parking space which has a direct access to the Great Hall and the Black Box.Adevărul: When will the concrete bell, the "candy bowl" and the National Museum of Contemporary Art's deposits be demolished?A.P. The first stage of works consists in the consolidation of Corpus B and the unloading of Corpus A's weights which were added in 1983, by eliminating the stonework with its arcades and the executed stacking (to avoid unloading on the underground parking’s floor of the weights coming from these constructive elements). This implies the closing of NMCA, NCDB spaces and the Lăptăria lui Enache Pub.At the same time, behind the theatre, the works start for the creation of a new hall of spectacles, the future Scene Hall. The Great Hall, the Black Box and the Amphitheatre Hall will function normally until the end of the season 2011 – 2012. Viewers' access in the Great Hall will be possible through a maximum security tunnel built next to Căruţei cu Paiaţe monument with direct access from the boulevard, through the esplanade park in front of the theatre.In the last stage, interventions inside Corpus A will be carried out.Adevărul: Where will the NCDB shows take place?A.P. NCDB is under the ferule of the MCNP (the Ministry of Culture and National Patrimony) and as far as we know, it has been given, for now, a repetitions room and offices in the building of the Pallace Hall. Starting March 1st, the National Theatre has given the NCDB the Black Box for use every Tuesday.Adevărul: The parlours, deposits, offices, the Black Box and Studio halls in which, presently, the Operetta is running, all of them will change their appearance. Where will the shows from the Black Box, Amphitheatre Hall and Great Hall be played? Is there a schedule on that respect?A.P. The parlours, deposits and offices will be temporary relocated, without the impiety of the current shows deployment.The Great Hall, the Black Box and the Amphitheatre Hall will normally function until the end of the season 2011 – 2012.As for the Operetta, there is a GD (government decision nr.1294/2006) in which the Operetta is given as a social centre, the Omnia Hall. Until the enforcing of this solution, the Operetta will function in a temporary construction, a special tent, which will be ready in September.Adevărul: Can you tell us until when will shows be performed in the actual spacing?A.P. We hope we will be playing all this time, during the deployment of works: the constructor will have to respect our conditions from the tasks' notebook, including the 28 months deadline and the staging of works imposed by technical reasons and to do so that, during the execution, three halls would be available for performances.Adevărul: The new halls in which performances will be scheduled are adequate for the grand shows such as those staged by NTB?A.P. The present scene of the Great Hall with its exceptional endowment will not suffer any changes, a fact which ensures the fulfilment, and in future, of "grand" shows. Together with the consolidation of the Great Hall corpus, not only will the hall be restricted, it will get back to an optimal format of 850 seats (instead of the 1156 that it has now) and which will be brought to the optimal visibility, acoustics and ambiance parameters.Adevărul: What will happen to the decors, the costumes and the actors' rooms?A.P. They will be temporary relocated in proper spaces.Adevărul: Will you please specify the delayed shows (if this should be imposed) and how the NTB shows' schedule will look during the works.A.P. For the moment, there are no delayed shows, and the NTB shows' schedule will be communicated to the viewers, as before, through the usual means of communication.

The successful bidder is the Aedificia Carpaţi company, in association with Romtest Electronic. The company has extensive experience in executing such works: the Romanian Athenaeum, the Art Museum, the National Library and the Victoria Palace - the last two in progress. The contractor will have to comply with the requirements of the tender book, including the 28 months deadline and the phasing of the works required for technical reasons, so as to allow the functioning of three auditoriums throughout the construction period.   On the 16th of March 2011 the first location handover required for the organizing of the construction site took place. This process will continue throughout the period of reconstruction.The first stage of the works consists of the consolidation of building B and unloading the weight added in 1983 by removing the wall with its archways and stacking (to avoid the fall of the weight from these building blocks on the underground car park's floor). This includes closing off the areas that are in use by The National Museum of Contemporary Art, The National Centre of Dance and Lăptăria lui Enache. At the end of the works, Lăptăria lui Enache will receive a more appropriate area for its current activity.Throughout the construction period, access to the car park in front of the theatre will no longer be possible.The audience will still be able to use, as before, the Intercontinental Hotel's underground car park, with direct access to the Great Hall and the Black Box.Simultaneously, behind the theatre, works will begin on a new auditorium, the future Scena hall. The Great Hall and the Amphitheatre Hall will function normally until the end of the 2011 – 2012season. The audience will make its way in through a maximum security tunnel built near the The Harlequin Cart, with direct access from the boulevard through the park on the esplanade in front of the theatre.In the last stage, the works within building A will be carried out.

Aurel Drăgan - the NTB building between Ceauşescu's absurd game and the fear of an earthquake The 51 million euros project, 27 million of which come from the Council of Europe Development Bank, will extend for a period of three years and will transform the NTB into a building open 13 hours a day. "In theatres from the great European capitals, the norm is to have open cultural centres, where people can stay all day long, whether they go to see a play afterwards or not" said Belea, who gave the Barbican Hall Theater in London as an example. The current area of 60,000 square feet will remain the same, but it will also include a cafe, exhibition and workshop halls and bookshops. Aurel Drăgan - the NTB building between Ceauşescu's absurd game and the fear of an earthquake The 51 million euros project, 27 million of which come from the Council of Europe Development Bank, will extend for a period of three years and will transform the NTB into a building open 13 hours a day. "In theatres from the great European capitals, the norm is to have open cultural centres, where people can stay all day long, whether they go to see a play afterwards or not" said Belea, who gave the Barbican Hall Theater in London as an example. The current area of 60,000 square feet will remain the same, but it will also include a cafe, exhibition and workshop halls and bookshops.   "Lăptăria" stays in the new formula"The Actors Cafe will have to go because it doesn't make sense to stick a wooden structure to the NTB building, while Lăptăria lui Enache, which has already become an institution, not just a name, will find a whole new place within the complex" explained the architect. At the same time, the total number of audience seats will increase from the present 1,720 to about 3,100. The outdoor arena on the rooftop of the building will welcome 300 spectators and will allow the shows to continue during the summer season too.

The technical and economic indicators of the investment objective were approved by Government Decision no. 1052 of the 10th of September 2008. The financing came from foreign loans that were obtained and backed by the government (Government Decision no. 933 of 2007, Memorandum no. 274 of the 17th of April 2009) and the state budget.In 2009 all the technical approvals and the Building Permit were obtained and on the 5th of December 2009 the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage initiated the international auction for executing the works, a turnkey contract, estimated at 51 million euros.   During the tender period (two months), the potential bidders visited all the buildings within the complex, raised questions on any aspects of the economic and technical documentation and received clarifications in this regard.The opening of the bids took place at a public meeting held on the 9th of February 2010. Ten bids were submitted by companies and by the Romanian and foreign consortia, who suggested prices ranging from 39.6 to 49 million euros.The evaluation period was relatively long due to the volume of the submitted documentation, as required by the complexity of the project which provides the following works:-the consolidation and reshaping of the structure;-demolition works;-architectural and rehabilitation works;-sound, waterproofing and heat insulations;-heat installations - including machinery and equipment;-ventilation installations - including machinery and equipment;-electrical installations - including machinery and equipment;-plumbing installations - including machinery and equipment;-low voltage electricity installations - the BMS system, the lighting and sound systems, the voice -information transmission, all these including the necessary machinery and equipment.   Photo Gallery

The NTB architectural design was done by the "Proiect Bucureşti Institute" between the years 1963 and 1969 and consisted of the following buildings:-building A1 - the Theatre's Great Hall;-building A2 - the tower of the Great Hall stage;-building B - the Annex area (offices, workshops, etc.);-building C - the Theatre's Studio Hall (now used by the National Operetta Theatre Ion Dacian);-building D - the underground building of technical facilities (the electric generator, the electrical panels, etc.) which is situated on the east side of the stage tower.   After the fire of August 1978, the Great Hall of the Theatre was destroyed and the shows had to be discontinued for a period of several years.The Great Hall restoration project was conducted between 1983 and 1986 by the "Carpaţi Institute of Design", a project which brought important changes to the building complex, such as:-the architectural and structural modification of the Great Hall that led to the increased number of seats;-the change to the main building's facade by placing a screen of arches in front of the main entrance’s awning and by placing on the main building’s terrace a series of steel structures with different functions.The Great Hall of the National Theatre was reinstated in 1986. In its present form, it has a much larger number of seats than originally, but also a number of additional facilities located in different parts of the building and the facade arcades built over the upper floor of the existing underground parking.All this remodeling and transformation brought important and problematic changes to the structural frame of the building (building A - the Great Hall) and in the way of the gravity discharge, unacceptable in terms of design precautions.The appraisal of all the building structures belonging to the National Theatre, based on the New directive of seismic calculation (P100/2006), imposed the need to consider the consolidation, rehabilitation and modernization of the whole building.Firstly, it implies removing the current facade added to the foyer of the Great Hall and the return to the initial structural framework. The massive arches of the current facade fall artificially on an underground parking structure that cannot possibly bear such weight. Their "fall" is already visible, and in the event of an earthquake of over 6.5 on the Richter scale, there is danger of collapse.Along with the consolidation of the Great Hall's building, its ambience will also be restructured at optimal parameters of visibility, audibility and intelligibility. The National Theatre will be open to the general public for 10 to 12 hours daily and will serve many functions, in accordance with the operating criteria of the greatest theatre venues in the world: performances in several halls (over 3,000 seats compared to 1,700 at present) and various performance - audience activities (art galleries, exhibitions, antique stores, bookshops, bars, cafes, restaurants, etc. ...).The physical and moral attrition of the facilities that are almost 40 years old, as well as the concepts and solutions of the initial project, are incompatible with the 21st century technologies and the building complex of the National Theatre in Bucharest has to meet the European standards in effect.The works for the consolidation and functional optimization of the building of the I.L. Caragiale National Theatre in Bucharest, a defining landmark for the Romanian culture and a prominent edifice in the city of Bucharest, will play a part in the completion of a building that will meet technical and safety requirements and ensure the access of the general public to the act of culture.

>The National Theatre’s renovation began with the reconditioning of the tapestries in the Great Hall’s foyer. It is an ambitious project if we take into account the impressive size of the three tapestries that make up the entire set. They survived the great fire of 1978, which broke out in the Great Hall of the National Theatre. Also, one of them is considered the largest tapestry in the world. >The person in charge of bringing to life the original colors of the fabrics is Mrs. Aurica Pomponiu, who holds a degree in the aesthetics of textile restoration and who is a certified expert and lecturer on the subject of Fashion at the Bucharest Academy of Fine Arts. She attended the meeting between the theatre’s management and the creators of the tapestries and on May 20, 2010 she began the reconditioning process. Working alongside her with great love and dedication are several young graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts, who specialize in restoring textiles. The three tapestries are: -         The Theatre of the World:: 740 X 2250 cm (291 X 885 in) -         Ode to the Motherland: 1145 X 880 cm (450 X 346 in) -         War and Peace: 1100 X 900 cm (433 X 354 in)   We talked to Mrs. Pomponiu about the whole process of conserving and restoring the tapestries and she told us the following: After the 1978 fire, two of the tapestries were cleaned, but the third had a more delicate problem: a third of Ode to the Motherland was destroyed and the artists had to redo that part of the tapestry. We have at our disposal a large area that allows us to simultaneously work on all three tapestries. Ode to the Motherland is almost finished, we began cleaning War and Peace, too, and The Theatre of the World is just in its vacuuming stage. The most complicated step is that of maneuvering them. It took real engineering until we learned how to maneuver, move and unroll them. That is why we intentionally left the largest of the three for last. After the research I did during the summer, when I got to talk to specialists from the National Museum of Art, the History Museum and the Village Museum (some of which had taken part in the cleaning of the tapestries after the fire), I decided which substances to use when cleaning them this time. They had used simple solvents, but we improved their technique. There will be several stages consisting of multiple procedures. We will use solvents with different degrees of concentration and mild detergents that do not require rinsing. But I realized that after this process, the fibers lost some of their elasticity. The last stage involves the softening of the textile, to be more precise, hot soaking it with glycerin in order to freshen up and enliven the fabric. The glycerin will be combined with acetic acid and distilled water in different degrees of concentration. Hot soaking helps the glycerin penetrate the fibers where it is most needed, instead of only staying on the surface. Before handing them over, the tapestries will be soaked with K600, a very efficient spray against moths. Adventures while reconditioning When we first vacuumed, we noticed that our throats and eyes were hurting and our hands and clothes would turn black. Everything around us, the floor and the plastic sheet were turning black. Black soot was spreading everywhere. I had the opportunity to restore 300 year old tapestries and I never encountered such a thing. The vacuuming was done with the aid of special stainless steel nets and low-power water-based vacuum cleaners, in order to dilute the smoke. We repeated the process several times and then we used a high-power vacuum cleaner. The final test was done by one of the girls, who was wearing white socks and walked over a portion of the tapestry. The socks turned black, so we vacuumed one more time. All of this was done just for the surface, because the soot between the fibers was later removed with special carpet detergents.   Both friend and foe The smoke turned out to be both friend and foe of the tapestries. I would even say more friend than foe. The layer of smoke protected the colors very well. The smoke from the fire could not be completely removed, but after the tapestries will be cleaned all the original colors used by the artists will once again be visible. The smoke proved to be a very good friend in relation to the greatest textile pest: moths. The moths were not able to get in, either in the front or in the back. There were some around the corners, in the area of the fasteners. We found them between these hemp and wool straps, but they did not damage much of the fabric. We will finish cleaning the three tapestries by the end of this year, but in order to display them again, their lining must be redone. This will be accomplished manually and will be decided on at a later time. We will consider our options and try to update the lining material with something more efficient. But the fastening and securing method will remain the same. A brief history The huge tapestry The Theatre of the World is a joint work by artists Şerban Gabrea and Florin Ciubotaru, created over a period of ten years (1969-1979). Their work was initially a project awarded with the Grand Prize at the contest held by the National Theatre, in the attempt to provide the new institution with tapestries. It is an ambitious effort to incorporate a textile representation of ideas and symbols in the historical scale of the art of the theatre. This work is structured, in fact, by the explosion of light: the light seen as the spirit’s impetus and victory, as a primordial, cosmic energy. In the center of the work, the artists depicted the main aspects of the characters in theatrical plays. There is a total of forty-five, inspired by different theatrical events, shows, great tragedies and even civilizations that have had an impact on the ages. Characters - ages, as the author calls them. Among the depicted scenes we can find Shakespeare – the man who wonders, the Card character – the one with two faces and two moods, or the Warrior Character. We also encounter the Byzantine Civilization, which according to the artist, holds “great significance” and the scene of the Labyrinth, depicting the battle between Theseus and the Minotaur, between Good and Evil, each represented by a character. The scene that I was particularly drawn to was the one in the middle, inspired by a book that Ciubotaru describes as follows: “During a storm, the boat catches fire”. The so-called Dodecahedron, which is the last part, the third one, on the right, stands for the Pendant, the making of the show or the spiritual state of the making. In the sphere’s frame everything has a basis – matter. The volute coils around the hand symbol and its divinity, on which the energy signs are depicted, signifying Ying and Yang. The frame is surrounded by various torture implements, representing the basis of human conflict, inspired by medieval books. The second tapestry, Ode to the Motherland, was created by Gheorghe Iacob and Ion Almăşan. The composition is displayed vertically and symbolizes our ties with our historical past. Life is illustrated in the center of the work, through several characters with different postures, laid-out vertically. Around the central composition there are medallions depicting illustrious figures of Romania’s historical past, which are surrounded by vegetation-inspired elements, emblems and symbols, emphasized by colors and contrasts. The entire tapestry is suffused with vegetation-inspired elements, represented by clusters of leaves. From a chromatic perspective, Ode to the Motherland consists mostly of warm and cold hues of white, interspersed with grays and intense shades of red, blue, yellow and brown. War and Peace was created by Ion Nicodim and Ariana Nicodim. The tapestry presents itself as an allegorical whole, built around the central character - Man. Fascinated by the myth of man, by his terrestrial and cosmic destiny, the artist keeps coming back to this theme, unraveling an entire mythology of the human condition. The human figure is framed by the signs of the zodiac. Nicodim’s figurative art is truly visionary, hoping to evoke the spiritual horizons of the contemporary universe and, at the same time, to weld together the traditions of the opposing Eastern and Western civilizations, which have often interacted in the middle ground represented by Romania. The tapestry sets itself apart through its perfect symmetry and multiple rows of frames, underlining the core of the composition; man is depicted as the measure of all things. The artist has chosen to represent the human body in the style of Leonardo’s emblematic drawing. Describing the work method The original work methods are the ones that have been used for hundreds of years in the Dutch and French manufactories and are called haute lisse and basse lisse, depending on their specific technological details. Originally, the large-scale or small-scale tapestries produced with these methods were made entirely from wool, silk and gold or silver thread. But the modern tapestries, like the ones of the National Theatre, are produced with different technological means: through a white cotton warp with a density of five threads/cm, the weaver draws the weft made of fine wool, with a density of 18//2, dyed manually with acid dyes for domestic wool, specific to a certain time.   Bibliography         1. Specialized documents: The preservation of the large-scale tapestries displayed in the foyers of the National Theatre of Bucharest 2. Cerul şi pământul nostru by Deniţa Ilieva – The tapestries decorating the National Theatre   Translated by: Diana Maftei MTTLC, Bucharest University