VOUA Arhitectură+Design is an architecture office, based in Cluj-Napoca, founded by Vlad Oniga & Adrian Urda, in 2021.

Our practice is oriented on sustainable, contextual and personalized design solutions, addressed in a unique and contemporary vision.

VLAD ONIGA

ADRIAN URDA

> Vlad cofounded VOUA at the end of a three years span of practice in architecture in a renowned office in Cluj-Napoca, being then certified as full-fledged architect by OAR (Romanian Order of Architects). He graduated in Architecture with an integrated Mastership Programme at Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Cluj-Napoca in 2017. While a student, he was offered a scholarship of studies at Zwolle University of Applied Science in The Netherlands.

Vlad brings his share of contribution to VOUA through his artistic and creative personality and background. In his works, he endeavours to enhance a sense of identity through peculiar features that can make a unique user’s experience. He is, besides profession, a keen painter and a DJ.

> Adrian studied architecture at Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at Technical University of Cluj-Napoca from 2011 to 2017. During his studies he followed a master course in Architecture, Atmosphere and Digital Culture at Grenoble National Higher School of Architecture in France. After three years span of practice and being certified as a full-fledged architect by OAR in 2020 (Romanian Order of Architects), he cofounded VOUA with Vlad.

For Adrian each project brings contextual, cultural and innovative challenges simultaneously. Every project is a result of the world + the work in a certain time and is evolved through a rational narrative followed by a technical approach. Beside architecture, Adrian’s passion is backcountry skiing.


Our Pledge


Architecture is about people and the comfort of living in a certain cultural, social, and economic space. This simple idea lays at the basis of the promise we want to make, both individually to those who use our services and collectively to society.

The art and science of architecture and its branches also exist for we've been disposing - at times discretionarily - of our planet's resources. We have thus created our human environment by building large, far-reaching works as needed, as well as smaller works, where the core is the house - often called home.

The balance between human need to live on the one hand, and the necessary but limited physical space, on the other, was not put to the test until recently. State and global policies have not always been friendly to nature, which has led to the emergence of climate-related problems, a nuisance that we have begun to feel. The world tends - naturally, after all - to consume beyond needs, which is not necessarily a way of life that ensures sustainability, a term whose essence is the concern for both our comfort and of the generations that will follow us.

In a world where freedom of choice is discretionary, we sometimes feel the need for a guide. In this sense, architecture, as art and science, and the architect, through his profession, can guide us in the interaction with the environment and reveal the ways of comfortable living and coexistence. As far as we are concerned, each of our projects is well-tailored, unique, adapted to the era, but also looking ahead with a curious eye. They each propose a unique story, in which we want our partners and customers to recognize and love.

Living in today's world sometimes means living surrounded by inadequate construction and continuous advertising of questionable value for many objects and spaces. In a word, noises. They can become distressing and eventually exhausting.

Our craft, architecture, by generating spaces tailored to the essential, pleasant, and useful, can provide the necessary sensory relaxation.

An architect of words, the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, said: Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

We are essentially space makers. Using top-notch technology, accumulated knowledge as well as that acquired through continuous learning, our promise is to deliver projects of quality, honest, authentic and in harmony with the environment.

Within our services, BIM (Building Integrated Modeling) design is essential in coordinating the entire project. BIM ensures that the specialties involved in a project harmonize and ensures that errors between digital and physical practically do not exist. The 3D model within BIM offers advantages even after the completion of the construction, one of them being the tracking of its behaviour over time, by correlating reality with the initial model.

The design of energy efficient buildings is becoming an imperative in modern society. Classic constructions are a big consumer of energy, which, together with the carbon footprint of the construction, we aim to reduce, right from the design phase.

Qualitatively, we integrate the energy intelligence of the construction by referring to the nZEB (passive/active house) standard, while preserving the harmony between the components and the beauty of the architectural object, as part of our professional principles. With each project, we aim for a cleaner environment and buildings that are as energy independent as possible. With a design dedicated to attention to the whole and details, our promise is to fulfil our role in making our habitat and its living better and more comfortable for us and the generations to come.

Added value through visionary solutions that embody the lifestyle of our clients and end users of our architectural programs…

VALUE

We stand out with our architectural practice that can take a project from zero to hero, through a creative and processual workflow…

OFFICE

All concepts are unique, as they are reflections of our study of local and cultural nuances merged into a contemporary vision…

UNIQUE

Our architectural philosophy and language revolves around solving complexity by focusing on essentialist solution exploration…

ARCHITECTURE