The Broken Project

2025-2026

Broken transforms photographs of New York City architecture into geometric abstractions that examine migration as a force of continual transformation.

Through fragmentation, reflection, and structural intervention, the series reveals how architecture absorbs traces of movement, memory, and shifting identity—inviting viewers to reconstruct spaces that appear permanent but are continually being rewritten.

Architectural elevation is fragmented and reconstructed, revealing transformation as an active structural condition.
Windows and reflections create a layered grid in which surface, depth, and structure become difficult to separate.
Controlled distortions move through a rigid façade, while the larger structure maintains a provisional balance.

Load-Bearing Shift (Facade Study I)

2026

A structural interruption transforms the facade into a field of conditional adjustment, questioning the stability of architectural order.

Reflection Grid: Imposed Light

2026

Light reorganizes the building’s surface, turning reflection into structure and destabilizing architectural certainty.

Load-Bearing Shift (Elevation Study II)

2026

Architectural elevation is fragmented and reconstructed, revealing transformation as an active structural condition.

Displaced Order (Lower Manhattan)

2026

Architectural fragments are reorganized into a new arrangement that challenges assumptions of permanence and control.

Downtown Story

2026

Layers of intervention and reconstruction expose the city as an evolving structure shaped by continual change.

Surface Tension

2026

Windows and reflections create a layered grid in which surface, depth, and structure become difficult to separate.

Dynamic Equilibrium

2026

Windows and reflections create a layered grid in which surface, depth, and structure become difficult to separate.

Broken Statement

In the Broken series, I begin with photographs of New York City architecture and transform them through geometric fragmentation and digital intervention. Drawing on my background in engineering and my experience as a Romanian-born artist living in New York, the work explores the tension between structural stability and shifting identity.

Architecture becomes both subject and metaphor. Facades are broken, reconfigured, and reconstructed into compositions that oscillate between representation and abstraction. Rather than depicting migration directly, I examine it as a force of transformation—one that reshapes memory, identity, and the built environment. My interventions reveal the structural traces of these changes, inviting viewers to reconstruct a city continually rewritten by human movement.

The Process

Downtown Story began with a simple realization: I missed downtown Manhattan.

What started as an exploration of architecture and geometry evolved into a reflection on memory, change, and belonging in a city that is constantly reinventing itself.

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The New York City New Bauhaus Project