Архитектурата 2010-2020
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The Bulgarian Architecture in the Years between 2010 and 2020
Preface
Professor, Doctor of Architecture, Todor Bule
Radically different conditions for architecture and construction emerged in Bulgaria in the years of 1989-1990. The overall development since then, although tentative, can be divided into the decades 1990-2000, 2000-2010 and 2010-2020. No doubt we should make serious studies and evaluations of these 30 years and of each of these periods separately, but while in the first years of the so-called “transition”, and in the period up to 2010, there was quite a bit of discussion and research, after 2010 this critical evaluative and journalistic activity became noticeably silent.
This period is characterized by a rich architectural activity, with interesting processes. This led to my proposal (accepted by the UAB Board) to prepare for the XXXI General Assembly of the UAB a review that would mark the development of our architecture in the last ten years and which I consider a necessary step towards a broader discussion on the state and future of Bulgarian architecture.
2007 is the year in which Bulgaria became a full member of the European Union. The socio-economic conditions, and therefore the nature of the leading building realizations, were again (after 1989) undergoing significant changes. Despite the economic crisis of 2008-2009, which froze a number of projects, the scope of new construction continued to grow. Investors from Europe and beyondwere entering the country more boldly. European structural funds were supporting the development of urban and regional infrastructure projects, the development of rural life, and the emergence of production facilities.
Larger office structures, sometimes combined with the new type of large-scale commercial facilities (shopping malls) are emerging (or being completed). With the assistance of the state, large sports halls are built in Sofia, Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad, Samokov, Burgas. Residential resort complexes of a closed type, including those with medium and moderately high condominiums, are also becoming more common. There is a tendency to build taller and more complex skyscraper buildings in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas.
After the “retro” wave of the 1990s, the liberalism, and the extremes of the first decade of the new century, in mass practice there has generally been a certain calming down of the imaginative aggressiveness of the new objects, and even a move towards an interpretation mainly of the clean, calm language of the modernism of the 1930s and 1960s. The interaction with the established environment, the nihilistic attitude to context, which is completely at odds with the established practice of the contextual approach in world architecture and in our practice until the 1990s, still often remains ignored or unresolved. In other words, some persistent yet contradictory phenomena have been developing in our architecture over the last ten-twelve years. At the same time, a number of new facts, events and trends are emerging.
The present text provides a summary overview and, in part, an assessment of architectural trends in the period 2007-2020, and especially the decade 2010-2020, while also highlighting some specific issues. As can be seen in the contents page, ‘architecture’ is considered here in a broad sense: from spatial planning to interior design. The text should also be seen as a first step towards developing a broader discussion to build a professional opinion on the future of our architecture, from our professional point of view on the necessary conditions for this, and our participation in their creation. Because architecture is a socially responsible but also socio-economically and politically highly dependent profession. Despite my clear awareness of this, I have sought here to focus more on the creative and professional issues than on the current conditions – legislation, role of governing bodies, etc. – for doing architecture. The complex of conditions and issues for the implementation of a certain spiritual and culturally oriented architectural policy is an ongoing debate that I believe we should unfold especially in relation to the UAB’s idea of drafting an Architecture Act.
