New architectural heritage
The initiative for identification of immovable cultural values from the period after 1944 has the ambition to highlight valuable examples of Bulgarian architecture, built in Sofia after the World War II. The aim is to propose sites for inclusion in the National Public Register of Immovable Cultural Property.
Despite its bright and valuable representatives, Bulgarian architecture from this period is still not clearly recognized as a cultural value. Only a few sites built in the country after 1944 are entered in the National Register of Immovable Cultural Values. Only one of them - Kambanite Park is in Sofia Municipality. This puts at risk of destruction or damage valuable specimens from our recent architectural past throughout the country.
In March 2020, the team of Sofiaplan assigned the Center for Research and Design at UACEG to prepare a specific proposal for samples of Bulgarian post-war architecture in the Sofia Municipality, with potential for cultural heritage. Among them there will be - buildings, ensembles, complexes, urban structures, parts of neighborhoods, urban spaces, landscape spaces, architectural and sculptural ensembles, etc.
The last stage of the study envisages the preparation of targeted arguments for 20 of these sites, with which they will be proposed for specific protection as cultural values within the meaning of the Cultural Heritage Act. These are steps towards purposeful actions for establishing the brightest examples of Bulgarian architecture from the middle of the XX century until today and their subsequent preservation. The study is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.
On the topic of architectural heritage after 1944 in recent years have worked various initiatives and institutions - MK, NINKN and SM (with the international European project ATRIUM - Architecture of totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century in urban government), BAN (with a series of research projects), UACEG (with research and educational projects, lecture course and a growing number of student projects), UAB (with the initiative White Paper on Modernism), Bulgarian section of DOCOMOMO International - the International Organization for Documentation and Protection of Buildings and Landmarks places of the Modern Movement, ICOMOS България (through various initiatives of its members). This initiative aims to systematize and categorize the information about the qualities of various sites in the ways required by the Bulgarian legislation in the field of cultural heritage protection.
