The competition aims at attracting the participation of students and young professionals in the field of architecture and design not older than the age of 35.
Information about the competition shall be disseminated in the structures of:
The site of the Varna municipality, The Bulgarian Architects’ Chamber, The Bulgarian Architects’ Union, the Bulgarian Interior Designer’s Association, The Cherga Bulgarian
Designers’ Group, The Bulgarian Designers’ Chamber, The Dibla Platform of the Bulgarian Designers, The “More About the HOUSE” magazine, the Interior Design Magazine, universities in Bulgaria, other Balkan universities and European universities-partners of the Varna Design Forum.
Varna Design Forum invites all students and young professionals (not older than 35) in the field of architecture and design to participate in an open online competition for young people for a detached module office/place of open air meetings.
The emerging of the so-called freelance work tendency, which became stronger in recent years and going through the development of the offices of the co-working space type, in 2020 the working environment unexpectedly faced a new challenge. The global pandemics focused our attention to the safety of the working place, the freedom to come out to open space and preserve the new healthcare standards.
In 2021 The European Commission Chairperson Ms Ursula von der Lien appealed to actions leading to the new European Bauhaus. It is to be expected in the coming two years following the outlined direction for the development of the European Union member-states that many specialists – architects, designers, and researchers will work or will be united by the ideas of the reborn understandings.
The Varna Design Forum, in support of this initiative tries to find an expression of the new European Bauhaus ideas with practical answers and aesthetics and responsibility to an effective ecological future for the society.
In this context the open online young people competition for a detached module office/place of open air meetings, appears to be a platform which will lead to and assert the unity of technology, utilitarianism, esthetics, art and cultural understandings.
The module to be designed is intended to be an attractive place for people working on the territory of the City of Varna and/or other cities who seek inspiration, change of the working environment or finding suitable working conditions when in the open air. The place may be used by visitors of the city who may do business on their smart gadgets or avail of the offered convenience, searching for information on the city landmarks, to start sightseeing from a given starting point the city: in the case of the City of Varna – a sea resort with a hundred years of history.
At the finish of the competition a five member jury will select the winner, who in addition to a monetary award will be given the opportunity for his design concept to be developed in real scale during the realization of the next event of Varna Design Forum “Realization of a detached module office/place for open air meetings”.
The aim of the competition announced by the Varna Design Forum is to develop a suitable concept for a small working place or emergent business and informal meetings in the open air, which shall be both a convenient place for work and part of the city design of Varna of high esthetical value.
Students in architecture, design (industrial, interior, exterior), building constructions;
Young professionals not older than 35 years of age (architects, designers, building engineers, artists, sculptors).
The Technical Commission shall review the projects for compliance with the competition terms of reference, ensuring anonymity and shall forward the projects for examination. The composition of the Commission: Arch. Yoanna Topchieva, Arch. Mina Georgieva, Arch, Maxim Nedkov.
Prof. Dr. Arch. Andrey Nekrasov – MARHI, Moscow, Arch. Victor Buzev – Chief Architect of Varna, Arch.Vanya Karadjova – representative of the Bulgarian Architects’ Chamber – Varna, Dr. Arch. Hristo Toipchiev and Arch. Siyana Georgieva – representatives of VDF
No, the participation in this contest is free and you need just to pass the contest terms.
No, you can participate without any registration.
The official languages in which you can participate are English and Bulgarian.
The necessary power of the solar panel for the purposes of the announced competition has been
calculated as 415 W and the application of only one panel has been set on purpose. The flexible solar
panels offer an inherent power between 100 and 175 W, therefore in order to achieve the desirable
values 2 ÷ 3 flexible panels will be necessary.
In addition, if a flexible panel is assumed to be used, it would change the characteristics of the list of
components announced in the task (controller, inverter, batteries, solar panel) and the cable
connections foreseen thereto.
Usually the flexible solar panels allow a bending curve under working conditions of not more than
30 0 . Please see the drawing in order to assess the degree to which the application of a flexible or rigid
panel would affect your visions.
In view of the above considerations, the organizers are of the opinion that for the purposes of the
competition a rigid solar panel would be more relevant to use.
There are no limitations on the general form of the designed Outdoor Modular Office/Open Air
Meetings Place, as far as it is realizable and allows the mounting of the solar panel by standard
fittings for photovoltaic panels.
There will be an additional award – Diploma of the Bulgarian Architects’ Chamber.
Prof. Dr. Architect
Prof. Dr. Architect Andrej Borisovitch Nekrassov, holder of MA degree in Architecture from the Higher Institute of Building Engineering IBE in Sofia, 1962; MA (1963) and Doctor’s Degree (1971) from the Moscow Architectural Institute; He is professor in the Montana State University in the USA; Honorary Professor of the Architectural Institute in Sian, China; Member of the Academy of MAAM, professor in AIA. Laureate of many national and international architectural competitions (the musical theatre in Kaliningrad, the theatre in Prague, Development of the Islamic Architecture in Turkey, The Theater in Amsterdam, House Bakuriany in Georgia). Holder of awards of architectural fora (Gold Medal of INTERARCH for the reconstructure of the MARCHI; Award of the Ministry of the French Commune of Belgium for Ana Pavlova’s Theatre, a.o.) He has been for his achievements in education and as author of many publications on architecture.
Architect
Hristo Topchiev is an architect who is holding a “Master Degree in Architecture” from VFU “Chernorizets Hrabar” (2008, Varna, Bulgaria) and a “Master in Advanced Architecture Degree” from the prestigious IAAC (2010, Barcelona, Spain). Currently he is running his own private architectural studio at Varna, Bulgaria, but he is also a PhD student at VFU, where he is working as an Assistant Professor at the classes of “Urban Planning” and “Architectural Design”. Hristo Topchiev is also organizing a student oriented workshop every year, with a focus to contemporary digital tools for architecture modelling and fabrication. His main interests are related to sustainable urban planning and green architecture as well as innovative tools for contemporary architectural modelling and fabrication.
Chief architect of Varna
Viktor Buzev is graduated from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia. He was a chief architect of Byala and Balchik before taking the highest professional position in Varna in 2014. In 2016 he supported the initiative of Italcementi and Varna Design Forum to organise the competition for the Effix Pavilion.
Architect
Architect Siyana Georgieva is holder of two MA: Architecture of the Higher Building Institute, Varna (2004) and Interior Design and Architecture of the Middlesex University, London (2017). She practices her profession in the English Studio, where she develops projects directed towards exposition halls, mostly oriented to interior design. In 2017 she opened her own creative studio for Interior Design dedicated to functional and non-standard design. Since 2019 she teaches Interior design, and at the same time organizes individual and group intensive courses.
Architect
Architect Ivanka Karadjova-Gocheva is holder of MA in architecture from the HIAB , Sofia (1991), Member of the Chamber of Bulgarian Architects,Varna. She is holder of numerous professional awards, among which the most prestigious award of the Union of Bulgarian Architects: Architect of the Year (2005), the <Building of the year> award in the section residential buildings (2003), Building of the year award in the section public buildings (2004), the Golden Plumb award of the ChBA . She is author of 40 projects, a great part of which are implemented.
The organizer of the competition is the Varna Design Forum Association with Chairperson Prof. Dr. Arch. Rositsa Nikiforova.
This competition is being realized as part of the understanding and support of the Varna Design Forum to the development of innovative design in Bulgaria and the endeavour to improve urban environment in tune with the contemporary trends through challenging creative thinking of students and professionals.
For more questions and information about the contest, please, use the contact form on our website or our Facebook page.