Authors’ Comment
An apartment in a 1938 building, fashion house with housing above, repossessed by the state in 1950, turned in to office, than dwelling (with 4 families sharing it in 1975), became, since March 2016, our office. Its history became the first texture we used. What can one bring without annulling the old ceiling details, frames, flooring, heaters, marble sills etc? How can one intervene and still keep the feeling the space had in old photos of it? What is added is knowingly foreign, linear, light, rested or suspended on point. The textures, common and cheap (OSB, melamine covered boards), painted iron accessories, PVC pipe lighting fixtures and ready-made objects forgotten and re-discovered rest on the existent and reclaim it. The natural light, ventilation and acoustics of the space guided where the millwork and furniture should be to answer both the context and function. Above them, the ceiling mirrors and arranges the space below - hiding new electrical and data cables, providing local light fixtures etc. This is how a new stage in the life of apartment 1, Hristo Botev 27, started: transforming itself from a house to a living office.
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