The Changes in Character of the City Center in Sofia

This paper aims to provide insight into the repercussions of the recent changes in power structures and economic system in Bulgaria on the architectural features of public spaces in the city center. Within the general instability and confusion, increasing deterioration of the public domain is observed and this is interpreted as a field of opportunities through which the meaning of architectural environment as support of public life and its social significance could be regained. Whether and how this potential can turn into quality depends on a variety of factors, some of which are suggested as areas of inquiry. These include value systems of the society and the architectural practice respectively and their relationship. The architectural environment cannot fully determine the public life of a city, rather it can support the attainment of the practical and spiritual needs of people, expanding experience while allowing for dwelling. In a general condition of confusion and deterioration observable in almost every aspect of life in Bulgaria resulting from the fragmentation of power, the change of the economic system and the instability of values, the weight of responsibility concerning the qualities of public space tends to shift. It is important to identify the changing features of public space in relation to the forces effecting them. Thus directions of inqulry into conditions promoting positive developments could be recognized in terms of aspects of cultural wealth of the society as well as in terms of reassessing the role of the architect-planner.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Intl.1995.37

Volume Editors
John K. Edwards