Press

Dear Madam or Sir:

Today (December 19, 2011) at Perform Business Center, the results of the Contest for an Architectural Project for Metro Station 20 of Metro Line 1 of the Sofia Metro were announced. Sofia chief architect and the chairman of the international jury for the contest, architect Petar Dikov, announced the winners. The undeniable quality of the submitted projects made the jury’s selection difficult, hence it awarded two first-place and one second-place prize.

First prize in the amount of 8,000 leva – architect Aleksandar Shinolov, Plovdiv, Bulgaria;
First prize in the amount of 8,000 leva – the team led by architect Victor Jimenes, from the studio ATA Ltd., London, UK;
Second prize in the amount of 4,000 leva – the team led by Mr. Kichul Lee, from the studio Architect-K, Seoul, South Korea

In order to determine the categorical winner, recommendations were given for the further development of the two first-prize projects, with a view to their optimization in terms of technical implementation and financial adequacy, while preserving the project’s original impression. The authors of the projects will have an opportunity to make their improvements and send the projects to the jury for a second evaluation, which will be based on a joint meeting between the jury and the leadership of Metropolitan EAD in order to determine the final project to be implemented. Today the envelopes were opened in front of journalists and the names of the participants became clear.

The contest was launched by the Sofia Municipality and the Directorate for Architecture and Urban Planning, and co-organized by Sofia Architecture Week. One-hundred and thirty contest applications took part in it, with participants from over 15 countries in Europe, Asia and America. They will be displayed in an exhibit specially organized for the purposes of the event – in the galleries on the first floor of Perform Business Center. The exhibition will be open to the public on December 20-28 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Information about the Contest

The contest, the first of its kind in Bulgaria, was announced by Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandukova on October 15, 2010, within the framework of the international festival Sofia Architecture Week 2010. One year later, the contest was officially launched on September 27, 2011, by its organizers, the Sofia Municipality and the Directorate for Architecture and Urban Planning, as well as the co-organizer Sofia Architecture Week, with the support of the Union of Bulgarian Architects and the Chamber of Architects in Bulgaria. The idea for this type of architectural competition came from Magazine Edno, the organizer of Sofia Architecture Week and the curator of the 2010 festival, architect Georgi Kutov. The contest assignment was prepared by the architects Orlin Manolov and Pavel Yanchev, who also created the site www.station20.eu, which received several thousand unique hits. One hundred and thirty contest submissions from participants in over 15 countries in Europe, Asia and America took part.

The present contest is the first of its kind, offering an opportunity to present and discuss ideas for the architecture of one of the new metro stations, which is located at the periphery of the city and has the potential to influence the development of non-urbanized future public zones. It is also a new attempt to foster debate between the project creators, the citizens of Sofia and the city government.

The submitted projects are proposals for a holistic, sustainable architectural concept for the metro station and the public spaces above it, taking into account the specific requirements of the underground rail transit and contemporary urban principles.

Metro Station 20 is expected to be built based on the project acquired through the present contest as part of the construction of the metro line between the Tsarigradsko Shosse stop (metro station 19) and the Sofia Airport stop (metro station 23).

The chairman of the international jury is Petur Dikov, chief architect of the Sofia Municipality; the other members are:

– Elena Paktiawal – architect at RGB LLC, from the quota of Metropolitan – Sofia;
– Boris Milchev, attorney – head of the Legal Department at the Directorate for Architecture and Urban Planning;
– Anna Tilova, architect at Metroproekt LLC, from the quota of Metropolitan – Sofia;
– Bart Lens, architect at LENS ASS Architects, Belgium;
– Petar Tornyov, architect, chairman of the Chamber of Architects in Bulgaria;
– Adam Hatvani, architect at Sporarchitects, Hungary;
– Eduardo Gutierrez, architect at ON-A architects, Spain;
– Andrey Velinov, architect, chairman of the Union of Bulgarian Architects;
– Georgi Kutov, architect, representative of Sofia Architecture Week.