Curator of this year's Forum is George Katov of I / O architect. The theme he chose was Being peripheral and is an attempt to look at ourselves on the background of a changing world. We'll ask questions like "Is Bulgarian architectural scene Peripheral?", "Do we know the dimensions of its remoteness?" And especially "Do we appreciate its benefits and do we know how to use them?"
The first two days of Sofia Architecture Week 2010 are almost entirely devoted to the Forum, divided into 4-panel lectures:
Centrally European - with lecturers from architecture studio from Katowice in Poland, Bucharest in Romania and Prague in the Czech Republic
Emerging Centers - where the lecturers are from Ljubljana in Slovenia, Talinn in Estonia, Zagreb in Croatia
Centers in the Periphery - we'll hear lectures from Helsinki in Finland, and two different studios in Porto, Portugal
The Bulgarian Way - 3 different kind of studios will deliver lectures here - the Bulgarian Aneta Bulant-Kamenova who's been long living and working in Austria; the young Bulgarian studio DSGN and Atanas Panov from LP Group - a Bulgarian studio that has worked on many major projects.
The common among all lecturers is that they are mostly young architectural studios, with major projects carried out in their own countries, many of which have been nominated or have won one of the most prestigious awards for architecture - Mies van der Rohe.
The selection of speakers is from countries comparable to Bulgaria in size, geographical location or historical destiny. The aim is to compare the local situation with different interpretations of the periphery, as discussed in the architectural context.
Hans Ibelings, publisher of the Dutch A10 - one of the most influential European magazines for modern architecture - will be guest of Sofia Architecture Week for the second time. He was the moderator of a panel at the first edition of the festival in 2008. This time, Hans Ibelings will deliver the first lecture of the Forum which will consider the European architecture - in the center and at the periphery of the continent.
Sofia Architecture Week 2010 Forum will be held on 16 and 17 October in Hall St. Sofia National Assembly - the former Communist party headquarters.
Sofia Architecture Week 2010 Open House is based on the theme "Periphery is where I'm not". It starts on Oct 15 with the opening of the whole festival. Open House features 5 exhibitions - the overview of the last "20 Years of Private Architectural Projects in Bulgaria" showing over 300 examples of what was built in the country between 1990 and 2010 - opens Oct 16, 7 pm; The exhibition will be followed by a discussion.
BOOM/ROOM - collected by the Estonian Union of Architects in cooperation with Estonian Center of Architecture, this interesting and inspiring exhibition showing examples of the unique phenomenon "young Estonian architecture" - opens Oct 17, 7 pm, while the next Open House day is dedicated to Estonia. On Oct 18 an open lecture of the same title will be delivered by Triin Ojari, editor-in-chief of the Estonian MAJA magazine. Another lecture - Tartu: a hotbed of contemporary architecture will be given by Tiid Sild - the Chief Architect of the town of Tartu - the second biggest city in Estonia and the country's cultural center. Last but not least, on this very day, there'll be the discussion TALLINN 59°25′N, 24 46′O | periphery as a key-concept to understand the city.
Romani BG: Sustainable strategies for integration of informal peripheral settlements in Bulgaria and Europe is an exhibition that examines the problems and prospects of urban integration of Roma people in Bulgaria. The main objective is to seek sustainable strategies for overcoming resentment, racial prejudice and social exclusion of informal peripheral settlements and the people who live there - both in Bulgaria and in Europe. A major focus of Romani BG is the district of Faculteta - one of the largest Romani neighbourhoods in Bulgaria, home to some 40,000 people. The exposition is made possible with the help of the ERSTE Stiftung Foundation for Social Development, Culture and Europe - opens Oct 18, 5.30 pm.
Women's Guide To Diarbekir - Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) sought refuge in squatter areas and in the historic city center of Diyarbakır in the 1990s. The town's population increases drastically, there's lack of adequate housing and access to public services. Chronic poverty, domestic violence and state oppression at the time resulted in a traumatic urbanization experience, especially for women. The "Women's Guide To Diarbekir" exhibition is a documentary of the incredible results achieved through a minor measure, which reflected in better self-esteem with women in Diarbekir and involved many to effort to improve the population in and around the town. - The exhibition by Superpool will be opened on Oct 18, at 5.30 pm.
Nation Building Aesthetics - this video installation by the NY-based design and research practice Agency compiles research and urban proposals that capitalize on recent innovations in Tirana, an emerging world capital of the rapidly developing nation of Albania. Drawing on first-hand experience of the city's unique urban environment, and the success of Mayor Edi Rama's citywide painting program, the project documents the potential and paradox of a city absorbed in the fabrication of image.
Extrapolating the city's superficial urbanism to increasing scales of local efficacy and global interaction, the project proposes new architectural, urban, and infra-structural futures for a nation poised to enter the world stage. Nation Building Aesthetics will be launched on Oct 19, within the Open House day dedicated to Albania.
Right after this presentation, the lecture Unplanned Urban Development will take place right. It will be delivered by Anila Gjika a representative of CO-PLAN - an Albanian non-government organization with national and international experience in the fields of urban, regional, municipal, and environmental management and institutional development. The Open House dedicated to Albania will continue with the discussion From Zero to Hero I Top down and bottom up. Tirana's mayor Edi Rama is still expected to confirm his participation within it.
Many other open lectures, discussions, 2 big workshops and 2 smaleer ones, presentations - Gifle or architectural slam being the most attractive where anyone can present their idea within 3 minutes and then hear feedback from the audience and critics, film shows, parties and more will fulfill the days between Oct 18 and 22, during Sofia Architecture Week 2010 Open House.
SAW 2010 Curators
George Katov - I/O architects - Curator Sofia Architecture Week 2010 Forum
graduated UACEG with a Master's degree in Architecture in 1999. He worked at Noble Associates and Radina Gesheva Studio until 2002, when he received a Japanese Government scholarship for specialization in the Tokyo Institute of Technology at the Yoshiharu Tsukamoto's studio (Atelier Bow-Wow). In 2004, together with Viara Jelyazkova he founded I/O architects and executed their first joint project form a distance. Their work combines experience in the Bulgarian conditions with critical outside perspective. Their projects are characterized by experiment and sensitivity to the context of local nature, cities and society as well as commentary on current controversies. The architecture of I/O architects is formally restrained, and avoids the risks of the aesthetics of transition.
I/O architects have been nominated four times for the modern architecture award of the European Union - Mies van der Rohe. The studio is carrier of numerous national awards, including the Vizar Award for Bulgarian architecture and was within the final selection of the European prize for social housing Hugo Rivolta 2007, where David Chipperfield was part of the jury.
George Katov selected this year's theme - Being peripheral and the lecturers of SAW10 Forum.
Along with Viara Jeliazkova he is the curator of the exhibition "20 Years of Private Architecture in Bulgaria".
Curators Sofia Architecture Week 2010 Open House fordewind architecture ltd. is a multidisciplinary studio founded in Vienna by Ephgenia Hodketvich and Boris Enev. It works with existing spaces, but creates new ones too. fordewind architecture ltd.'s trademark is the critical questioning of seemingly established rules and solutions. The influence of architecture on the urban environment and the responsibility of the architect to social spaces is the focus of the studio. fordewind architecture ltd. deals with both architectural and interior projects but also with theater productions, films and installations.
Ephgenia Hodkevitch was born in Bulgaria. She graduated high school in Vienna, where she studied mainly Latin. She studied architecture at the University of Applied Arts and the Technical University in Vienna, and Stage Design at the University of Applied Arts. She worked as a freelance architect and set designer in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. She teaches Landscape Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
Boris Enev was born in Germany. He took his Secondary education alternately in Germany, Bulgaria, Austria and the Czech Republic, where he used to live in a Russian boarding school and developed passion for photography. He graduated Architecture at the Technical University in Vienna and worked as a freelance architect and consultant in construction matters in Austria and Germany.
fordewind architecture ltd. won two competitions in Bulgaria and opened an affiliate studio in Sofia in 2004. In the next years fordewind architecture ltd. worked on numerous public and residential projects, TV studios, reconstructions and on some theoretical projects related to urban and social environment in Sofia. The project for the western tendency of the Sofia center is shown to international audiences at the Balkanology exhibition and the 17th Congress of Architecture in Vienna.