Broken House 3+1 Engagements

This project began with my fascination with earth as a building material and for the traditional architecture of my home country – Bulgaria. What connects these two subjects is tradition and its oblivion or perhaps neglect. This requires architecture (both as a product and practice) to engage differently with the everyday. Nowadays in this part of the world vernacular architecture seems to be viewed only as potential capital investments. The goal of the project is to reveal the value which lies beyond the material whilst reactivating these neglected places.

At the heart of the project lies the revival of a neglected house through a process of collective care and repair. The Broken House Residence is not intended as a space for experimentation, where acts of making and maintenance become central to its function. A series of carefully detailed structures, built with a sensitivity to traditional craftsmanship and local know-how, support workshops, gatherings, and moments of shared learning. Locally sourced clay plays an active role, not only as a building material but as a means of reconnecting with lost knowledge. Here, participants engage with traditional construction methods, working together to rediscover the joy of making, repairing, and tending to a place. Beyond the physical intervention, the project is accompanied by an Observation Manual, which does not follow a conventional structure nor prescribe solutions. It is a record of encounters that transformed my understanding of an old house in the Bulgarian. These stories offer transferable principles of care, opening a more hopeful perspective on the future of traditional practices tied to the homes of our elders. The manual is structured in three plus-one acts: Empathy, Engagement, Care and Entropy, each offering a piece of wisdom and a tool for revaluation. Following is a lexicon that explores the meanings and origins of keywords shaping the ethos of the Broken House Residence. It aims to foster a shared understanding between reader and writer through language. The project unfolds through an auto-ethnographic approach, which made it possible to envision more plausible architectural practices, that prioritize ecological considerations while remaining grounded in the social, political, and financial realities of everyday life.