The container

The first construction we brought at the Station is a shipping container. Customized and donated by architectural duo studioBASAR (Alex Axinte & Cristi Borcan), this was used for several years by a civic action group, in one of the big parks of Bucharest (Parcul Circului), as an interface for community gatherings, until it was evicted from there. We took it over, with its histories, with its traces of the presence in public space and with gratitude, not least for our long-term collaboration with studioBASAR, which leads all the way back to 2012, when we inaugurated the tranzit space in Bucharest.

On a construction site, a container is a temporary shelter for the workers, signalling the progress of the work and the future which completion is desired. For an Experimental Station of Research, the container indicates more than a precarious transition – it reminds the focus is the territory, the land and what we learn from the research.

In time, the container will be integrated into other constructions and its volume will be less visible, however, its raw nature and simple functionality will continue to define approaches that we take at the Station.

studioBASAR (2006-2026) was an architecture studio and a public and community space practice, founded in Bucharest by Alex Axinte and Cristi Borcan. Through urban installations, co-design, co-production, civic pedagogy, research, and applied education, studioBASAR created intermediate spaces that enabled collaborative processes and encouraged user participation toward a more accessible and just city.

We gather here from time to time…