Sense Hotel in Sofia | Lazzarini Pickering Architetti

[IT]

L’hotel sorge in Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard, una delle strade più prestigiose della città, con cui crea un attento dialogo, come d’abitudine dello studio Lazzarini Pickering Architetti, seppur nella sua forma innovativa.

Il basamento, unico elemento in pietra, è realizzato in continuità con gli edifici adiacenti. Al di sopra si sviluppa la nuova facciata caratterizzata da una superficie vetrata interrotta da una struttura reticolare metallica che disegna le finestrature fisse delle diverse stanze. A queste si alternano strette fasce rettangolari apribili per offrire la possibilità di un ricambio d’aria naturale in aggiunta al sistema di condizionamento interno.

La sperimentazione dal punto di vista formale è data dalla creazione di una seconda facciata interna mutevole, capace di cambiare configurazione in rapporto alle esigenze di chi vive l’albergo. Si delinea infatti attraverso una serie di pannelli opachi orientabili per modulare e schermare il rapporto tra spazi interni ed esterni. Questi elementi, in continuo movimento, sono di un caldo giallo dorato in omaggio alle cupole d’oro della Cattedrale Alexsander Nevsky che si riflette sulla superficie trasparente dell’edificio.

L’effetto finale offre un’immagine costantemente cangiante dell’edificio, in grado di svelarne la vita interna, grazie all’apertura e chiusura dei pannelli che mettono in movimento la facciata opaca, e alle variazioni della luce notturna affidate agli ospiti delle singole stanze.

Gli ultimi piani della costruzione si svuotano progressivamente lasciando posto alla sola struttura in metallo che abbandona la forma prismatica per trasformarsi in ziggurat. Sono dedicati alle suite, con terrazzi privati, e allo skybar.

Domitilla Dardi, Emilia Giorgi (a cura di), Lazzarini Pickering Architects, Quodlibet, Macerata 2014.

Collaboratori: Barbara Fragale, Giuseppe Postet, Daniela Ogis, Antonio Cavallo, Andrea Di Laurenzio, Carlo Guerrieri, Jenny Hammer, Eva Christine Schenck, Francesca Wunderle

Interior Design: Architectural Group Tzonkov Ltd.

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. 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 panels alternate with operable rectangular windows that provide fresh air, in alternative to the mechanical air conditioning system. 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. 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. 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.

Collaborators: Barbara Fragale, Giuseppe Postet, Daniela Ogis, Antonio Cavallo, Andrea Di Laurenzio, Carlo Guerrieri, Jenny Hammer, Eva Christine Schenck, Francesca Wunderle

Interior Design: Architectural Group Tzonkov Ltd.

Flip open the brass shutters and let light flood into your room, right above Sofia's yellow paved main boulevard Tzar Osvoboditel. Your bed faces a vertical wall of glass, with views stretching well beyond the neighboring National Assembly and St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral. This is Sense Hotel Sofia, the first upscale design hotel in Bulgaria's capital. Stay in one of the 71 rooms and suites, eat on the terrace of the Mediterranean fusion restaurant, relax in the lobby lounge, sip champagne in the panoramic rooftop bar, or swim in the health center's stainless-steel swimming pool, and you'll discover that Sense Sofia is a new classic that stands out from the crowd. By meeting the changing needs of its guests, and acting as an architectural landmark in its own right, the hotel is sure to stand the test of time.

Some of the city's most significant architecture can be found nearby, but rather than simply making the building fit in with its neighbors, owner George Chopev and his business partners deliberately challenged the status quo. With the help of Lazzarini Pickering Architetti, he created a building that is sensitive to its surroundings, but whose innovative glass facade literally reflects Sofia's past, present, and future. From the outside, Sense Sofia resembles a grid of golden-orange squares, marked out by thick lines and set behind a glass screen. If you think you notice its appearance changing throughout the day, don’t worry; it probably is. A system of pivoting panels is hidden behind the façade to screen off the bedrooms, and when combined with Lutron mood lighting, they create continuously changing configurations that seem to shimmer and dance across the face of the building.Behind the pivoting brass panels, a subdued palette, teamed with wooden floors and leather upholstery, creates a minimalist, masculine look. A modern spatial concept combines natural materials, clear lines, and glass—resulting in an elemental experience where all of the senses are in perfect harmony.