Year:

2014

Size:

5 500 m²

Location:

Sofia, Bulgaria

Status:

Competition proposal, 4th place

In the current building that belongs to the Union of Bulgarian Artists, façade structure and spatial organization of functional blocks both declare non-transparency, closed nature and introversion each of exhibition center and the whole volume in general. The competition proposal contemplates on extraversion of the building, turning it to the city, considering the relation of daily life and art, intensifying the participation of citizens in the cultural dimension.

At the same time another goal of the project is to upgrade the quality of every functional block in the UBA building, to level up the efficiency of constructional solutions and to improve the energy efficiency.

Prevailing space typologies in the building are exhibition halls, offices and rental spaces whose existing layout does not fulfill the assignment. The configuration of rental spaces is not efficient enough, and exhibition halls are almost isolated from surrounding and turned inside the block.

The competition proposal is based on the sequence of coherent transformations.

The idea of the project is to place the requested offices and rental spaces into the southern side of the building as a block extended along the façade. The depth of it provides the necessary amount of light.

Exhibition halls are rotated and placed into the northern side of the building, therefore they look at Shipka street and Sveti Klimenta Ohridski street. The new façade system provides the connection between halls and the city by its transparency.