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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. HOTEL IN SOFIA by Lazzarini Pickering ArchitettiMarch 9th, 2014 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Lazzarini Pickering Architetti This project for a hotel in Sofia revolves around the contemporary reconstruction of a historical building. The hotel is situated in Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard, one of the city’s most prestigious streets. As with all of Lazzarini Pickering’s work, the project creates an attentive dialogue with the site, despite its innovative form.  Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza
 Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza The base, the only element finished in stone, ensures a continuous link with neighbouring buildings. The new façade that sits atop this plinth is characterised by a glazed surface interrupted by a metal grid defining the pattern of windows in the guestrooms. Fixed panes alternate with operable rectangular windows that provide fresh air, in alternative to the mechanical air conditioning system.  Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza Formal experimentation comes with the creation of second internal façade. The configuration of this shifting surface changes in direct relationship to needs of the hotel’s guests. It is composed of a series of adjustable opaque panels that can be used to modulate and screen relationship between interior and exterior. In continuous movement, the panels are finished in a warm golden yellow, homage to the golden domes of Alexsander Nevsky Cathedral, whose image is reflected in the hotel’s transparent façade.  Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza The final effect is that of a building with a consistently different appearance. Opening and closing the internal panels, reveals/conceals life inside the hotel and animates the opaque second façade. This effect is enhanced at night as guests turn on the lights in their rooms.  Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza The upper storeys of the building are progressively carved out to give way for a lone steel structure that abandons any prismatic form as its transforms into a ziggurat. Here we find the suites, each with a private terrace, and the skybar.  Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza The Architectural Project for the hotel in Sofia by Lazzarini Pickering Architetti creates a dynamic facade that reflects the inner city nature of the site. On the street, the manipulated grid of the facades becomes three-dimensional creating pergolas on the top three levels of the building and at ground level in the porte cochere.  Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza An innovative framing detail developed by LPA allows for fresh air ventilation by opening the opaque frame and not the window as normally occurs. A system of pivoting panels behind the facade screens off the rooms and changes continuously as the life in the room and hotel modify during the day and night, creating continuously dynamic configurations. The brass panels homage the gold domes of the Alexander Nevski Cathedral, creating an urban dialectic.  Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza  Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza  Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza  Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza  Image Courtesy © Matteo Piazza  Image Courtesy © Lazzarini Pickering Architetti  Image Courtesy © Lazzarini Pickering Architetti
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