Boyana Apartment Block
I/O architects. Sofia, Bulgaria
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Name of work in English
Boyana Apartment Block
Prize year
EUmies Awards 2011
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Work Location
Sofia, Bulgaria
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Studio
I/O architects
EUmies Awards 2011 Nominees
Collaborators
Program
Collective housing
Completion
2010
Situated on a narrow steep street on the outskirts of Vitosha Mountain, the building is an attempt to reconcile the opposites of the surrounding area. This prestigeous part of the city, builtup in the past with small houses and villas, nowadays changes its scale rapidly under the pressure of investments in big residential buildings. The shape of the building's plan and its situation on the plot provide optimized contact with the yard. The small front surface of the building and the fragmented facade with variable structure decrease the scale of the volume and the material of the sliding sunprotection panels connects the building with the natural surrounding environment.
The seemingly uniform external structure following the dynamic terrain, creates complex connections between the different levels and the environment as well as among the levels themselves. The linear staircase pierces through the whole structure - thus increasing the ambiguous relation to the slope - and organises around itself the common spaces of the building.