• Vision Sofia 2050 – a long-term development strategy for Sofia and it’s metropolitan area;
• Program for Sofia – a short-term integrated development plan, base on the Vision and required for access to EU funding in the 2021-2027 time-frame;
• Sofia’s Plan – the preparation of the renewal of Sofia’s General Urban Plan
• New Heritage – study and argumentation for the listing of a number of post WW2 buildings as cultural heritage
• Sofia does sport – a strategy for supporting sport and general physical activity;
• Sofia plays – a strategy for the playgrounds in the municipality;
• Transport model concept – a frame-work and roadmap for the creation of a transportation model for Sofia;
• The Green ring – a comprehensive cycling-pedestrian-green infrastructure that would for a ring, connecting various areas of Sofia
• Energy analysis and forecast – a study of the current and expected energy use by households for each municipal Urban entity (neighbourhood, town, village) … and many more.

  My time at Sofiaplan ended abruptly in 2021 after the chief architect and the mayor of Sofia proposed the enlarge the responsibilities of Sofiaplan with the coordination of the implementation of all municipal plans, strategies and key-projects. Together with Sofiaplan’s team I explained that this is an extremely unrealistic proposal due to the fact that Sofiaplan posses no powers to enforce the implementation of anything, to channel municipal funds, as well as no administrative powers to give orders, hire or dismiss members of the municipal administration. We were to be given responsibilities, but no tools. The objections were not taken into account and this led to my resignation, as well as the resignation of most of Sofiaplan’s team.   The case of the misunderstood responsibilities was rather the occasion for my resignation. The cause was deeper. Much of the knowledge and advice that was being produced by Sofiaplan continuously met deaf years in the mayor’s team. Ever worse – often the actions were contradictory to what we concluded as best policy. This, coupled with my judgement of the city’s governance as chaotic, unreasoned and counter-progressive led me to leave my post as Sofiaplan’s director in November 2019.

VISION SOFIA 2050 – preparation
Sofia, Bulgaria, 2016 – 2017

This text is a summary in English of a long and surprisingly successful process, which took the time between the end of 2016 and the end of 2019. Most of the links in the text lead to websites or documents in Bulgarian.

Vision Sofia 2050 is an initiative of Sofia Municipality to create a shared and long-term strategy for the development of the capital and its metropolitan area. The idea of creating a Vision has different origins, both within the Municipality, as well as in the informal consultation process that was being organised by the Laboratory for Urban Development in the period 2015-2016.

Formally, the decision for creating a Vision was taken by Sofia’s Council on September, 16th, 2016. The decision tasked the city’s chief architect to propose a long-term development strategy in the course of 9 months. The then newly elected chief architect, Zdravko Zdravkov, invited the members of the Laboratory for Urban Development (the Lab) to organise and lead the process of the Vision’s creation. My role as founder and coordinator of the Lab was continued as a team-leader and main organiser of the process of creating the Vision.

In the months of December 2016 and January 2017 I led the team, which prepared the method according to which Vision Sofia 2050 would be developed. The team consisted of Magdalena Kircheva (urbanist), Hristo Harlov (architect), Bozhidar Ivanov (sociologist), Angel Georgiev (technology specialist), Alexandra Antova (PR) and Vassil Iliev (visual identity). The team’s work resulted in a proposal that described the steps, necessary for forming the Vision. This proposal was approved by Sofia’s Municipal Council on February, 23rd, 2017.

The next phase consisted of gathering the team, which would lead and coordinate the steps, approved by the council, towards the Vision’s creation. In March and April 2017 I interviewed a number of people and formed a team that consisted of Adriyana Mihaylova-Subeva (communication), Joro Penchev (technology and economics), Kaloyan Karamitov (urban environment), Rashid Rashid (ecology) and Miglena Gerassimova (sociology). For shorter periods part of the team were also Dessislav Dimov (law), Stephan Anguelov (law) and Ina Vulkanova (partnerships). I retained my role as a team-leader.

This selection process was followed by a preparation process of a number of documents, including the procurement papers for choosing the expert teams that would research and later propose actions in the various field of interest of the Vision – People, Identity&culture, Ecology, Urban environment, Economics, Transport and Governance.

The work proper started in September 2017. What followed is described in detail on the website of Vision Sofia 2050. Further information is also available on the Vision’s You Tube channel and Facebook page, both of which were rebranded to Sofiaplan in 2020.

Creating the Vision was also a stimulus for reforming the planning body of Sofia Municipality. To read more about that see this text about Sofiaplan.

The main concept behind creating Vision Sofia 2050 was that such a vision needed to be a co-creation (but also a co-realisation) of as many of Sofia’s citizens as possible. In this sense the Vision was a success – it involved more than 10.000 individuals and organisations, representing a wide range of stakeholders. The result is a coherent document, which states the goals, traces the path towards them and lists the steps to be taken. But most of all the Vision established a system of dialogue and co-creation between the various stakeholders, a much needed tool in Sofia. What remains is for the Vision to be applied as systematically and coherently as it was created. The government that commissioned it unfortunately gas been lacking the will and the capacity to do this.

THE LAB
Sofia, Bulgaria, 2015 – today

At the end of 2015 the then chief city architect of Sofia, Petar Dikov, announced that he was going to resign. After 10 years at this crucial position, his policies (or more than often lack of comprehensible policies) were extremely controversial and there was a general (and not only professional) discontent with the quality of Sofia’s urban space.

Provoked by this situation, I proposed to a group of active people to start debating whether the case of his resignation could be used to demand a greater reform of the way Sofia is being planned. The group soon grew to include activists and public figures from different fields (i.e. not only architects or urban planners). At a certain point we started calling ourselves „Laboratory for urban development“ (the LAB). Our proposals and statements got into various media channels and the Sofia Municipality started talking to us. With our demands we helped to make the procedure for choosing a new chief architect to be as open and well communicated as possible.

We also proposed a new way to structure the planning and regulation bodies, which deal with the urban environment. We discussed this proposal at a large event (Forum) in April 2016, which attracted established figures, but also many new-comers and activists. The debate, which took place had not been seen (at least on the subject of urban planning) in Bulgaria for years.

The meeting

Video of the Forum is available at Streamer.bg

Photos Iliyan Ruzhin.

ACTION!
Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2016

In collaboration with studioBasar (Alex Axinte and Cristi Borcan)

The 2016 edition of ONE ARCHITECTURE WEEK was in many people’s opinion the best one that the festival had realised until that moment. It for sure the most productive one: a documentary, a book, an exhibition, a large intervention, a map, a well visited Forum, to mention few.

Forum. The lectures of this edition have been recorded and published online.

Do you know the architect? is a documentary, which traces the way, in which Trakiya (the main location of the festival) was developed and built. The film is available only in Bulgarian.

An interactive map. The festival’s team, helped by numerous volunteers, mapped the current state of Trakiya. On the map is visible both formal and informal data about the area.

30 locations. Another initiate was a game, in which the festival visitors were encouraged to discover many of the neighbourhood’s special places.

Urban awareness.A pilot project was launched with one of Trakiya’s schools. In the course of one semester the students observed and expressed opinion about their own environment. Both Plovdiv and Sofia municipalities have expressed interest in continuing the initiative.

Living spaces. The main exhibition of 2016 was also self-produced and completely thematic. Curated by Megan Lueneburg, it exposed the importance of individual and collective actions to the transformation of Trakiya from a dormitory suburb into an active pat of the city.

Intervention. Last but not least worth mentioning is the intervention that took shape before and during the festival. Led by IN-Formal, it was a co-production and a co-creation between the festival’s team, the local inhabitants and visiting foreign architects. The process of its creation was very valuable and is described here.

Photos by Lina Krivoshieva and Silvia Georgieva.

SPATIAL ECONOMIC DISTRICT
Shenzhen, China, 2015

In collaboration with Hristo Stankushev, Merve Bedir and Jason Hilgefort

At the beginning of 2015 ONE ARCHITECTURE WEEK was invited to participate at the Urbanism and Architecture Biennale in Shenzhen, the UABB.

UABB
UABB is the largest East Asian event in busy with discussing the urban environment. It was founded in 2005 and already from its beginning it aimed at becoming a place, where questions concerning urban development are discussed. UABB often treats the explosive urbanisation in the Far East, especially in the region ot the Pearl River Delta = PRD (?????), one of the fastest growing urban areas in the world, with a current population of at least 60 mln people.

The Biennale takes place mainly in Shenzhen, a city which population grew from 30.000 in 1980 to more than 10 mln. in 2015. Seen from a different angle, Shenzhen looks like this.

THE EXHIBITION
ONE ARCHITECTURE WEEK was represented by the following team: Ljubo Georgiev (director of the festival), Merve Bedir (curator 2015), Jason Hilgefort (participant 2015) and Hristo Stankushev (co-curator 2014). This team was asked to prepare a part of the one the main exhibitions of UABB, PRD 2.0. The exhibition’s purpose was to show visions for the future of the PRD region. We were invited with this letter.

THE LOCATION
The PRD 2.0 exhibition was planned (and subsequently relaised in) to be shown in an abandoned flour mill, the Da Cheng Factory. This factory is located in the She Kou area, which was in fact the first Special Economic Zone (SEZ), created as an experiment by the then Chinese president Deng Xiaoping. This was the very beginning of the wild economic development of China and its entrance on the wolrd scene.

Other participants, invited to show ideas about PRD’s future were:
1. MAD Architects
2. Urbanus
3. Archi Union
4. Rural Urban Framework
5. SED team: Ljubo Georgiev, Merve Bedir, Hristo Stankushev, Jason Hilgefort
6. Wise Architecture
7. Margaret Crawford, Max Hirsh, Dorothy Tang (UC Berkeley, University
of Hong Kong)
8. Thomas Chung
9. Juan DU
10. Christoph Gantenbein, Emmanuel Christ
11. Mary Ann O’ Donnel, Qing Yang
12. Yuan FENG
13. MAP Office
14. Weidong HUANG
15. Jeffrey Johnson
16. Qingyuan LIU, Hongyu TAN
17. Vitamin
18. INTI
19. Rongyuan ZHU

OUR PROPOSAL
A possible scenario for the development of the PRD we see in the establishment of an experimental urban space, called Spatial Economic District (SED). The idea uses the SEZ concept, through which Shenzhen became a magapolis, as a base. SED differs from SEZ though in its scale and target group. A SED is targeted not towards large multinationals, but towards small-scale makers, who often combine working with inhabiting and often adapt their immediate environment to their needs. If SEZ works with quantity (goods, people, money, square metres) SED aims at qualities (of production, of thought, of added value). Our full proposal can be seen via this link.

This idea was expressed through an interactive installation, which consists of a mural and large sheets of tracing paper. The mural, created by local artist Tan Xuan, shows an imaginary view towards the future Shenzhen. The imporant part of the installation though were the large sheets of tracing paper. Each visitor could place such a sheet on the mural and add to the idea of the future Shenzhen. And people are doing this, constantly. Our installation became one of the most entertaining elements of the exhibition, since within a month all the sheets of tracing paper (as well as the blank spots on the mural itself) were consumed with text, sketches and comments.

Aformal Academy
As a consequence of our proposal for the PRD 2.0 exhibition we were invited to organise a temporary school during the biennale. Merve Bedir and Jason Hilgefort took this task upon themselves and called the school the Aformal Academy.

PLOVDIV – EUROPEAN CAPITAL OT CULTURE
Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2014-2019

In 2014 and 2015 Plovdiv was busy preparing its candidacy for a European Capital of Culture 2019. And it won. We won. I was involved in this process in two different forms. On the one hand, as part of ONE’s team, I was preparing projects, which were to be included in the bid book. They all had to do with the urban environment of the city. Numerous foreign contacts were engaged in making this as rich and promising as possible application. On the other hand my involvement was also as part of the presentation team, which brought Plovdiv’s application to the attention of the international jury.

Photo by MediaCafe.

THE POSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE
Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2014

The festival was curated by dontDIY.

In 2014 ONE ARCHITECTURE WEEK focused on the interdisciplinary approach towards the urban environment. The main location was Kapana, a dilapidated neighbourhood of Plovdiv. Through a variety of actions, lectures, workshops, exhibitions, tours, etc. the festival addressed ideas for a possible future for this particular area of the city.

2014 was the year when ONE ARCHITECTURE WEEK started becoming increasingly site-specific, with a particular intention of becoming both useful and challenging to its urban context. This is the year when we started implementing the strategy of choosing for each new edition a new topic, and working at an urban location, which is related to this topic. The topics of choice were to be of importance both to the city of Plovdiv, as to the wider architectural discourse.

In 2014 the festival’s title was The possible impossible.

Photos by Yana Lozeva.

A SENSE OF A CITY
Sofia, Bulgaria, 2012

In collaboration with Jord den Hollander, Rozalya Dimitrova, Boyan Kolev, Grigor Atanasov and Zornitsa Blyangova.

How do you perceive the city you inhabit? What kind of architecture are you surrounded with? We asked these questions to different Sofia citizens. They invited us in their homes and showed us their favourite places in the city. The result is a documentary, which shows the perceptions of twelve of the citizens of a metropolis.
It is commonly acknowledged that the city, its buildings, streets and public spaces are designed by architects and urban planners. They are the creators of the environment, in which we live and work. Does the opinion that these professionals might have in what a good city is coincide with the opinion of the ordinary man though? We decided to talk about architecture with some non-professionals. After all architecture is part of everyone’s life.

We asked a banker, a street musician, an investor, a gallery director, an immigrant, a historian, a pop-folk singer, a municipal councilor, a blogger, a diplomat, an old Sofia family member and even a tour guide to tell us what they understand under good architecture.

The result – a film showing twelve different understandings on a what a home is, twelve different favourite city spots, twelve different personal observations, dreams and senses of what a city is.

http://edno.bg/en/sofia-architecture-week-2012/films/642

PROESTATE
St. Petersburg, Russia, 2012

ProEstate is an annual real-estate forum in St.Petersburg, Russia. Ljubo Georgiev, as part of the group Collective Amsterdam, participated in the 2012 edition of the forum. Collective Amsterdam had been invite to design the stand of the Consulate of the Netherlands for ProEstate. The stand was received with great enthusiasm by both the Consulate, as well as the general public and the organizers. It was awarded the title ‘Most creative stand at ProEstate 2012’.

At the stand the Collective Amsterdam exposed a study for a DIY shopping mall in St.Petersburg, commissioned by the regional chamber of builders.

http://www.thecollectiveamsterdam.com

BULGARIAN NOUVELLE VAGUE
Sofia, Bulgaria, 2012

The Bulgarian Nouvelle Vague is a bilingual book (in Bulgarian and English), which presents 101 figures from the avant garde of contemporary Bulgarian culture. Some of them are already established names enjoying international recognition, while others are only now gaining popularity after a promising start. Together, they form the Bulgarian new wave of artists, musicians, filmmakers, dramatists, choreographers, writers, photographers, designers, and architects.

Ljubo Georgiev led four of the interviews, which make part of the architecture section of this book.

http://edno.bg/en/the-bulgarian-nouvelle-vague