Liubata

Liubata is a residential building situated in Lozenets neighborhood, a location which has been chaotically overbuilt during the 90ies. The abundance of shapes and colors in such a small area demanded a pause, an approach different from the solid volume. The project turns back to the sense of natural beauty in the Old Bulgarian building tradition. Following the example of the typical barn, with its heavy stone ground floor and light wooden volume on top, the traditional house readapts this contrasting concept. Reminiscent of the airy old barns, the new building delicately enters this overbuilt scenario. In order to decrease the heaviness of the wooden volume and at the same time, to exalt the sense of individuality of its inhabitants, it is divided into four components, each variable in size.

They are separated by glass stripes sagging back from the cantilever to the line of the stone groundfloor following both facades and the roof. Seen from the street the building gives an impression of a row of houses, each coated with wooden lamellas, varying in size and direction. The ground floor, covered in the same stone as the surrounding pavement, is separated from the four wooden volumes by a glass stripe. It gives the sense of the volumes levitating above the stone, effect which is most evident at night when the stripe emits light.