Crista Jianu Residency — a façade study for the Jakab Toffler Palace
An architecture residency devoted to the Jakab Toffler Palace: a detailed survey of the façades' decay and a restoration-and-colour proposal in three NCS tones — beige, white and a turquoise accent.
Before giving a façade back its colour, you must read its wounds: each act of decay is a page in the building's biography.
The residency by Crista Jianu offers a careful reading of the Jakab Toffler Palace, starting from documenting the conservation state of its façades. The decay survey, drawn at 1:100 scale for each façade and party wall, groups the problems by category: physical decay (damp, erosion, plaster exfoliation), chemical (urban pollution, salt crystallisation) and biological (fungi, algae, lichen), alongside unsuitable human interventions — PVC joinery, runs of cabling and pipes, repairs with cement mortar.
On the basis of this diagnosis, the restoration proposal defines the materials and colour of every element. The scheme, expressed in the NCS system, is built on three tones: beige for the plaster fields and window surrounds, white for the background areas, and a turquoise accent (RAL 6033) for the stencilled ornaments, the timber joinery and the metal railings. The joinery and original elements are proposed for reconditioning rather than replacement.
The technical details — a roof of profiled ceramic tile, titanium-zinc sheet metalwork, natural-stone access steps — complete a dossier that treats the building as a living organism, with memory and heritage value.