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Kavarna Municipality

Kavarna Municipality

After winning a competition in 2009, we were commissioned to design the project of the new Kavarna Municipality building. Our main goal was to achieve a modern look while keeping the typical monumentality for this type of buildings. We selected local limestone-based coatings and the cabinets’ balconies were designed as cubes of wire mesh that provide the framework for climbing plants. Our idea was to turn them into a practical solution for vertical green, which will vary in colours depending on the seasons. Another function of the green cubes was the cabinets and the balconies to obtain a natural “blind” and a beautiful view from the inside at the same time.
One of our main ideas when designing the internal layout was for citizens to feel the focus of attention in the Town Hall, with clear instructions for finding different departments and comfortable waiting areas . We wanted, at all costs, to avoid typical signs of bureaucracy such as long corridors with many doors. To emphasize the user-friendly concept, all departments and offices open to the public are located on the first level around a large entrance hall. Offices are separated by glass walls where needed and they are organized as open-space offices so that they can be visible for visitors. Natural light illuminates all the common areas of the building and provides additional visual connections with the other floors of the Town Hall.

Kavarna Municipality Roof Terrace
In 2013. the Town Hall decided to develop a new roof terrace and to refurbish the roof of the adjacent building, so it can be used by citizens and employees of Kavarna Municipality. The plans are to provide a cafe, spaces for lectures, events and meetings, plus a recreation area for sitting and enjoying view. Protection from the sun can be altered throughout the day by changing the direction of the seating and by rotating sun shades. The second stage of the project envisages providing an open-air cinema .

Varna bus station

Varna Bus station is located in the
geometric center of town, near a large roundabout between two main boulevards – Vasil Levski and Vladislav Varnenchik boulevards.

The high permeability of both boulevards provides quickest and shortest access for people from all residential areas of the town, and also a good connection to the Airport and Railway station.

The company managing the old Varna bus station for more than 20 years has constructed the building with private investment. Investor’s idea was to build the new building right next to the old one, which could have continued its’ work during construction, in order to avoid Varna remaining without a bus station.

The bus station has 12 sectors for arriving and departing buses and 35 parking spaces for waiting buses and vans.
The new building’s size is similar to the old, although the layout is different, the biggest difference being the ratio of the outside to the inside waiting room.
It is a result of the change in the behavior of travelers over the years. The investor discovered they spend less and less time in the building and usually even come directly to the bus stop just before its arrival.

This is a result of many factors, one being the online ticketing, which has eliminated the usual early arrival to wait in line. Long layovers to connect with another bus are also becoming less common, due to the increasing supply of transport services and better coordination between carriers. Therefore the project’s highlight is the covered outdoor waiting room, fully visible directly from the road, intended to help people better orient where they are going.

Another priority we’ve set is that the building ensures the safety of passengers at any time of the day. It was important that there were no dark, separated and hidden spaces.

Visor’s large height on the outer platform, as well as the rich glazing of the interior parts of the building, allow all the spaces passengers pass by to be covered at a glance.

In addition to an indoor and outdoor waiting room, the bus station also has a doctor’s office, a room for mothers with kids, a shopping center and a café, and they all have their own access, as well as offices for carriers, right in front of the bus stops.

The construction is mixed with reinforced concrete columns and a metal visor, the shape of which is suitable for mounting solar panels

Multifunctional hall

Multifunctional hall

The new hall for cultural events in First language school, Varna is a project which began in 2013 on initiative of the school administration. During 2014 the school financed a project of the hall with its own funds, followed by the development of different options of its realization. Passing through a lot of efforts in searching for investors and programs and with the help of the active promotion of the idea, in 2019 the Varna Municipality included the project in its budget and completely funded the construction of the hall.

The hall provides a capacity of 379 seats with additional space for people with disabilities and areas for easy reach. The main entrance is through the main school building, in addition to two emergency exits with external stairs leading to the Western schoolyard. The stage is located on the southern side of the hall. It is a metal construction, covered by solid wood flooring at a height of 120 cm above the base level of the hall. Serving premises and dressing rooms can be found in the backstage area spread on two levels.

The opposite northern side of the hall is divided in 2 levels, with installation and storage rooms placed on the first, while the sound and light control room being on the second one. The northern second level is reachable through another independent staircase from the entrance lobby of the hall.
The hall represents a metal construction developed on an already existing semi-underground concrete body with storage premises.

The new hall is known for its remarkable acoustics , thanks to the specific shape of the facades and ceiling, the interior wooden cladding and full professional consultation with acoustic engineers. The long walls on both side facades are manufactured of metal bearing frames which are placed at an angle in order to achieve better acoustics and include natural light indoors without direct solar light reaching the stage.

The density of both indoor and outdoor cotton insulation gives high degree of noise insulation which allows the hall to be used while surrounding regular clasess are going on. Apart from acoustics, the shaping and colors used for the facades are fully compliant with the main building of the school in order to achieve integrity and unity.

CAMPUS 90

Campus 90

Headline

Nearby two reputable state universities this mixed-use building incorporates the functions of a student accommodation, a hotel and a conference center. Campus 90 responds to the increased interest from local and foreign students to education in the city of Varna and changes the character of the neighbourhood.

General description

The building is located by two busy city boulevards and aims to be a landmark, easily perceived by those moving at high speed. It has a simple rectangular silhouette while the facade is full of colour. The movement and speed inspired the color composition of the facade, which is a pixelated spiral rotating around the straight volume of the building.

The programme consists of 120 student accommodation units, 70 hotel rooms, 6 conference rooms with different range of seats, a restaurant, a fitness center, parking facilities for cars and bicycles and a large roof terrace. Various common areas create opportunities for the residents to exchange ideas in different environment, meet new people and spend their free time to the fullest. The heart of the Campus is the large living room with a lobby bar on the ground floor. There are different seating areas shared by students and hotel guests. Various events like film screening, concerts, talk events can be organized here. During the summer season the space opens to a large garden. A restaurant is also available for all residents and guests.

The programme evolves in height providing unique sea and city views from the rooms.

The student accommodation units are designed to be easily converted from a double to a single room. There are also clusters of rooms that share common kitchen and living space. Furthermore students have additional common areas to meet, rest and communicate – kitchen and party room, room for study and teamwork.

The hotel area is situated on the upper 5 floors of the building revealing panoramic view of the sea and the cityscape. Important elements of the interior design of the common areas and the hotel rooms are the drawings of the local graffiti artists “Arsek & Erase”.

One of the most valuable common spaces of the Campus is the rooftop terrace. It is a place for events, parties or just leisure. Residents and guests can enjoy a 360o areal view turning the rooftop into an open-space living room.

Concept/ Context and strategy

Significant challenge of the project was to provide a new functional programme to the partially completed structure of the building. The initial intention of the client was to build a high-rise office building and the construction began in 2008. The construction was interrupted due to the Global Financial Crisis (2008) and more than 10 years later the scope of the project was changed to a student accommodation building. The project was entirely redesigned, including structural strengthening. Additional functions were added to ensure full usage of the building throughout the year. Thus the project’s aim was to contribute to the improvement of the educational infrastructure of the city by providing safe environment for students to communicate, learn from each other and grow up together.

Construction/ Materials and structure

The building consists of 2 underground and 16 above ground levels. The structural material is reinforced concrete as it is the most common and economically reasonable one in the area. Materials used for the facade are completely non-combustible with a high level of energy efficiency and certificates for low carbon footprint values. The installations in the building are segmented by levels to ensure operational efficiency during uneven occupancy of the rooms.

Lipnik Boulevard Roundabout

Infrastructure Bulgaria Awards 2016 – First prize in the ” Urban Environment” category special prize for architectural impact

In 2014 we received an invitation from our colleagues from “Ingconsult Project” to join a consortium to design a roundabout. Our expectations were that the task was to develop  projects for the paths and the gardens within the inside circumference of the roundabout. However, as we moved deeper into the project,  we discovered that we had much more freedom to make more fundamental changes to the environment  and thereby solve some problems. The first task we set ourselves was to avoid breaking the green strip between the two lanes of Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard: this was used by the local citizens as a park and as a pleasant walking route to the Danube River  This strip is not wide, but the pedestrian walkways are separated  from the road by a green area of tall trees, benches and even sculptures: this route is used by those on foot and by cyclists.

In order to achieve our objective, we decided to build an underpass below the roundabout as smoothly as possible by constructing  two ramps (for pedestrians and for cyclists) with attractive contours to emphasize the feeling of a park. The other important pedestrian axis connects the new sports hall and a small town square which includes a garden. In this case we have chosen a different, more orthogonal concept. We have broadened the staircase as much as possible and integrated a ramp for disabled people. Our first aim was to accommodate the large groups of people who occasionally gather for sporting events, and secondly we aimed to make it tier extension of the two squares so that at other times, the space could then  used for recreation and even more, for performances. In this axis our development was restricted  by an large existing  underground collector that determined the shape of the staircase in front of the sports hall.