Layered Identities explores the Romanian folk mask as both metaphor and method, a conceptual framework for reimagining architecture as an agent of cultural reintegration within the metropolis of Bucharest, where ritual and community have eroded under globalization and communism.

Rooted in ancestral customs, Romanian masks once served as mediators between the real and spiritual worlds, embodying protection, transformation, and identity. Architecture, like a mask, can negotiate thresholds between inside and outside, past and present, individual and collective.

The proposal intervenes in a communist-era housing block defined by rigidity and repetition. Inspired by the antifragile nature of the mask, the project seeks to reconfigure this static structure, introducing new layers of meaning, porosity, and adaptability, while re-establishing a sense of community.

Through computational methodologies and contextual analysis, the design develops spatial strategies that respond to local conditions while embedding cultural memory, proposing a language that is not fixed, but layered, responsive, and symbolically charged, bridging the gap between tradition and the contemporary urban fabric.