# URBAN MODULE # SLABS # DYNAMISM
Aedes Studio: www.aedesstudio.com
UM is situated on ai???Al.Stamboliiskiai??? boulevard, which arrives from ai???St.Nedelyaai??? church at the very center of Sofia. Following this axis, the tower is the second high rise after the National Insurance Institute (NII) building. Analogical to the composition of the NII and its white local stone, contrasting the horizontality of the facing shopping mall and following the details of the Stalinist school building next to it, UM establishes connection with the local context.
The design commenced with a simple combination of slabs and columns. Broken through the prism of Modernity, they became signs of prefabrication, resembling double T panels. Interacting with the details of the neighboring school building, joints were placed at the middle of each element thus breaking the volume into smaller parts. The new structure was then exposed to forces of attraction and repulsion, each in its own direction, adding some individuality to the repeating offices and responding to the fragmentized Business condition of contemporary Sofia. Thus the slabs and columns shifted in different ways, yet remaining parts of the whole. The alternating volumes give an idea of an ongoing process, exalted by joints and the windows transposed back and forth. In addition, the regularity of the fa ade was randomly interrupted by solid niches instead of glazing between the elements. The depth of the columns gives the opportunity to improve the solar shading, arriving at a more balanced and sustainable condition. Finally on both sides of the tower intermediate elements are smoothly connecting it to the existing residential buildings.
With its height of 15 storeys placed on a small footprint, UM becomes a new vertical repA?re in this dynamic urban landscape.
CREDITS
ARCHITECTS: aedes studio / Sofia, Bulgaria, est.2004/
LOCATION: Sofia, Bulgaria
SURFACE: 8256 mA?
YEAR / STATUS: 2013 / completed
STRUCTURE: concrete
MATERIALS: stone / concrete
PROJECT TEAM: Plamen Bratkov / Rossitza Bratkova / Nedko Nedev
CLIENT: Sofbuild
PARTNER / CONSULTANTS: Alexander Traykov, structural eng.
PHOTOGRAPHY: aedes studio / Nedyalko Nedyalkov
