The tower of three ages

Revitalisation of the Firefighters’ Tower

The historical ages of the tower

Most likely built in the last decades of the 15th century, the Firefighters’ Tower, formerly the Weavers’ Tower, was part of the second medieval precinct of the city, guarding over the neighbourhood for centuries. After the demolition of the gate towers of the city in the early 1870s, the possibility of demolishing this tower of the fortified enclosure was also discussed, but the city council voted for it to be transformed into a firefighters’ tower. The old medieval tower was thus topped with a new segment, becoming a firehouse that could monitor the surrounding area. As it happened, fires were quite common, with the tower itself being damaged by two of them, which mostly affected its interior and resistance structure.

In order to better protect the tower and surrounding area, in 1960 a project was started to restore the building, which had been designated a historical monument of national importance. However, the restoration was done in the paradigm of those times, introducing reinforced concrete floors and ramps inside, in strong contradiction with the heritage structure of the tower. In 1985 the tower was transformed into a popular astronomical museum, receiving a glass pyramid at its top, which replaced the old wooden structure of the firehouse. The new glass pyramid was also intended as an astronomical observatory, but due to the tower’s location in the heart of the city it never had this function. Over time, the idea of an astronomy museum was also abandoned, and the tower was transformed into a firefighters museum, although without much enthusiasm from the public. At the time of the initiation of the restoration and revitalisation project in 2017, the tower was suffering from neglect and general disinterest.

The architecture competition

In 2017, Cluj-Napoca City Hall in partnership with the Romanian Order of Architects launched an international competition which aimed at the revitalisation of the Firefighters’ Tower and its introduction into the city’s tourist circuit. The competition received 25 entries from Romania and abroad, which were judged by an international jury. Beyond the success of this competition, the implementation was a great opportunity for the city’s administration to be more open to a new approach to future public investments. Important new municipal projects were assigned through the established international competition procedure, visibly increasing the quality of the proposed solutions.

The argument of the third age

The tower, built in successive layers that were used for defence and then for watching the city, remains an urban observatory in its new age, a place of contemplation and showcase for urban development. This third age is materialised through a discrete, integrated and unitary intervention, which aims, by simple and reversible means, to obtain a consistent activation of the tower, while also providing an insight into the past and future of the city.

Translucent core

After the removal of all the reinforced concrete elements, the new core becomes the tower’s spine, which facilitates access to the upper level, makes it possible to visit the interior space and gives structural rigidity. Proposed as a semi-transparent veil, the core thus becomes part of the tower’s third age, and also reveals the previous stages of its evolution.

The hierarchy of interior space

Imagined as a descending route, the journey of the tower starts from the highest, panoramic level, where the visitor plays a double role – of actor and spectator of the present reality. From here the visitor’s route descends through different spaces and layers, offering a series of sensory experiences, along with a narrative exhibition showing the previous realities of the city and tower. The visitor thus experiences and explores key moments from the city’s history and the tower itself through the spatial scenes of dioramas and augmented reality.

The tower grew with the city, and traces of this evolution can still be read on it. These traces become layers of memory, assumed in the proposal as moments of rest and reading during the visit. The imagined spaces detach discreetly from the inner shell of the tower, marking the stage of the third age. Their sensory content is supported by minimal display pieces alongside the existing dioramas in the central core.

Materiality

All the new elements are made of metal, and are detached from the inner and outer shells of the tower, generating a certain semi-transparency for reading the first two ages of the tower. The rest of the heritage elements (masonry, chimneys, carpentry, etc.) have been restored according to contemporary conservation principles, conjuring the medieval personality of the tower through traditional techniques (with the stonework left visible) and its baroque age evoked with finely polished plaster. The proposal also removed all the concrete elements from the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the compartmentalisation or filling of existing voids and niches.

All elements of external carpentry, plastering and cladding will be eventually refurbished or replaced with identical elements, using materials, textures and production techniques similar to the original ones.