Toma Barbu Socolescu practised at a period when the terms of architecture itself were under argument.
The record lists Toma Barbu Socolescu as Romanian architect (1909-1977).
Toma Barbu Socolescu was born at Ploiești in 1909. His recorded nationality is Romania. He trained at Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Modernism rejected ornament and historical style, arguing that a building should express its structure and its function - a claim contested ever since.
He is recorded as architect and professor.
Buildings outlast their architects and usually their purposes, which is what makes the discipline unforgiving.
That the work was built in Romania shaped it: climate, materials, planning law and who holds the budget all decide what can actually be built.
Toma Barbu Socolescu died in 1977, aged 68. The buildings remain, still in use by people who never knew the name - which is the particular afterlife architecture offers.
Achievements
- Trained at Beaux-Arts de Paris
