In the Public Realm
Our projects and ideas have been showcased in exhibitions and cultural platforms that celebrate contemporary architecture. Each exhibition is an opportunity to place our work in dialogue with a broader audience, inviting reflection, critique, and inspiration beyond the built object.
Igloo Magazine no. 229, 2025 – Coupled homes – Chinteni, Cluj County
Translated into contemporary language, the archetype of the traditional rural house represents the conceptual key of two coupled dwellings that bear the signature of the FORMAT 4 architectural team.
Interiors Album – Architecture Offices Igloo 2025 – Format 4 Office Space – Cluj-Napoca
Located in a mixed pericentral area, predominantly residential, on the open-space ground floor of a building, the office of the FORMAT 4 architecture team in Cluj-Napoca serves as both a place for creation and social interaction — “more than just a workspace, it’s a second home,” the architects say.
Igloo Magazine no. 223, 2025 – CEMACON Office Headquarters – Recea, Salaj County
Inspired by the principles of tectonics – with architecture whose expressiveness comes from the interaction of its structural elements, structural transparency, and the honest use of materials to their fullest aesthetic potential – the Cemacon office building, designed by the FORMAT 4 architectural team, manages to transform brick from a mere structural unit into an element with its own poetry, imbued with rhythm, texture, warmth, and memory.
Igloo Magazine no. 220, 2024 – Restoration of the House of Arts – Sibiu, Sibiu County
Piața Mică, an evocative and intimate space of old Sibiu, is vertically dominated by the Council Tower. In horizontal counterpoint, it is matched by the majestic volume of the House of Arts, which guides the procession of arcades surrounding the square. The vaulted galleries on the ground floor once served to protect from rain or heat the food and goods displayed for sale by the guilds whose headquarters were located above, on the upper floor.
Igloo Magazine no. 219, 2024 – Zhero Residence Collective Housing – Zalău, Sălaj County
Density, diversity, and proximity for urban life — translated into Romanian by Igloo Publishing (you remember!). But when the context we refer to is fragmented, it may fall to the architectural object itself to radically transform urban perception. This is precisely what the Zhero Residence complex achieves in its Zalău neighborhood.
Igloo Magazine no. 217, 2024 – Format 4 Office Space – Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County
For an architect, designing one’s own office space represents an excellent form of experimentation and creativity, while also offering the opportunity to reflect, from a unique perspective, on the identity and values of the team. The interior, defined by optimal functionality and minimalist aesthetics, provides a working environment that inspires and, through the originality of its design, embodies the signature and vision of the FORMAT 4 architectural collective from Cluj-Napoca.
Igloo Houses Album 2024 – House 4 – Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County
For a couple of architects, designing their own living environment may seem like a simple task, but it becomes a real challenge when it comes to distilling the Vitruvian triad into a project that fully satisfies their needs while reflecting their personality and values.
Igloo Houses Album 2024 – AM House – Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County
Located in a natural setting on Feleacu Hill, south of Cluj-Napoca, AM House opens toward the street with a clear volumetric composition. Since there is no form of enclosure along the property boundary, the project proposes a semi-public space that allows a direct reading of the materiality and of the relationship between the building and the garden. As the architects from FORMAT 4 note, the intention was to create a “compact image,” both in terms of the floor plan and the elevations.
Igloo Collective Housing Album 2024 – Zhero Residence – Zalău, Sălaj County
Architecture often has the power to revitalize a forgotten area, detached from urban life. In a dynamic yet fragmented neighborhood, shaped by successive interventions that created an uncertain urban image, the new Zhero Residence collective housing complex offers a clear architecture, sensitively attuned to its context.
Igloo Magazine no. 214, 2023 – Dacca Office and Showroom – Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County
A white exoskeleton – a dematerialized envelope for an existing building – unifies, creates coherence and balance, and produces a structure with a rhythmically elegant architectural silhouette, harmonized with the scale of the urban context. The project was carried out under the coordination of architect Sergiu Tîrziu and involved changing the original building’s function to become the headquarters of DACCA, Cluj-Napoca.
Zeppelin Magazine no. 171, 2023 – Bus Station – Zalău, Sălaj County
CEMACON Station, the meeting point between the industrial past and the dynamic future of Zalău, which is in full expansion.
Office Interiors Album 2023 – Dacca Office Interior Design
Located in the southern part of Cluj, in a former residence that was converted and expanded, the headquarters of a company specializing in interior design solutions was conceived as an immersive showroom, a place of discovery with a strong sensory component. The space stands out for its balance and intelligent composition, managing to bring together a multitude of different concepts and styles while remaining airy, calm, and bright, leaving room for imagination and creative ideas.
Igloo Collective Housing Album 2022 – River Park – Reghin, Mureș County
With a massive scale, the building is composed of three main volumes – two white and one gray – creating a harmonious articulation and variation of proportions. As a residential complex still in the process of taking shape, the architects designed a scenario of subtle dialogue between the components, along with a functional aesthetic adapted to contemporary lifestyles.
