Portfolio 2023

portfolio

Arch. Stanimira Getova

ACADEMIC

Sep. 2012 -

June 2017

Sep. 2017 -

Jan. 2023

Sep. 2020 -

Jul. 2021

Stanimira Getova

Architect

Nationality: Bulgarian

Birth date: 25/10/1998

Email: stanimiragetova@gmail.com +359889250491

High school diploma

"Ekzarh Yosif I" Foreign Languages High school | Lovech, Bulgaria

Bachelor and Master of Architecture

University of Architecture and Civil Engeneering | Sofia, Bulgaria

International study exchange

Università degli Studi di Genova | Genoa, Italy

LANGUAGES

Bulgarian: Mother language

English: Advanced

Cambridge certificate C1

Italian: B1

University course at UNIGE

German: A2

learnt at school

EXPERIENCE

Professional

Writing articles on the topics of architecture, city development, national and international events with the purpose of raising

Competition culture in Europe (International event)

A workshop that aimed to reimagine the city. There I explored the city by bike in search of potential voids that could be transformed into attractor

participated) participated)

Copenhagen Architecture Festival’s global short film competition focusing on the UN’s ‘Leave No One Behind’

videomaking, photography, sketching, visual storytelling creative writing, yoga and meditation, swimming, learning new languages, mountain hiking, reading books on psychology, history and theory of archisociology, architecture and urban development, exploring new places

DESERT VILLAGE social housing and urban design page 5/8

THE GARDEN OF MUSICAL DELIGHTS concert hall page 9/12

ISLAND OF DESIRE master thesis project page 13/20

HIDDEN EXISTENCE workshop page 26/28

MUSEUM OF EMOTIONS concept project

page 21/25

PHOTOGRAPHY personal project page

MOTIVATION

My story began when I was four years old. I would gaze at people’s windows and imagine how their apartments would look inside. I would make up stories about what objects the inhabitants had, where they put them, and how and when they used them.

Later on, my path in architecture led me gradually to different dimensions that sometimes might not seem directly connected to the physical manifestation of architecture. They are profoundly rooted in exploring how people perceive the spaces they occupy throughout the epochs and how they make sense of the world. That approach became a big part of my educational research and the topics I engaged with.

I am passionate about my mission to connect with other human beings and influence their lives for good. In this globalized world, the individual often feels unseen or unable to make any change. Though I believe that individuals constantly strive for their very authentic selves, and their quintessential will to express their creativity is a powerful tool to impact positively on their local communities and the everyday experience on a small scale and also by inspiring others worldwide to transform the surrounding a better place.

The Garden of Earthly Delights Triptych by Hieronymus Bosch

MEGAOASIS

Dessert village - social housing and urban design

8 semester, UNIGE

Prof. Christiano Lepratti

The project is located in the Tunisian desert underneath the hill south of the existing village and is a megastructure positioned above the old road and serves as a symbolic gate to Douiret. This act allows the visitor to be led gradually up in the mountains, traveling through time to the old Douiret and its sacred space - the Mosquée. Megaoasis is a new type of oasis, a future extension of the desert village. The enclosed dense megastructure is a city itself, but simultaneously permeable in all directions, open to new interpretations and development, space dedicated to carrying out variable activities such as social and religious ones.

Spatial organisation

MEGAOASIS consists of smaller oases in voids formed by the volumes, filled with evergreen vegetation, gardens full of date palms, and little streams, creating a fresh ambiance for both the inhabitants and potential voyagers looking for shelter from the desert heat.

The distribution access develops horizontally and vertically to connect all the different typologies of spaces. The piazza in front of the Mosquée, the urban platform that acts as an empty shared stage left for the inhabitants to interpret and give meaning to space, play on, interact and connect, socialize, transform, and shape according to their will and therefore accelerate the collective spirit of the village. location

Vertical spatial organisation

In height, the private spaces dominate the public ones, as the third floor doesn’t interconnect by footbridges. At the same time, the volumes become smaller making space for the light and forming the private loggias adjacent to the apartments.

The courts refer to the housing typology of Tunisian dwelling structures organized around a central courtyard.

Contrary to the wild nature of the desert oasis, MEGAOASIS obeys some composition rules. The rigid quadratic grid of columns and beams, free ground floor, left for the fluid game and formations of the sand by the wind. The spaces are open to transformations according to the ever-changing needs of the population, hosting traveling merchants, pop-up markets, and events.

axonometry of the megastructure

Construction and facade

The first floor, constructed of a vast slab, connects all spaces and serves as a base for the further auto construction of the megastructure.The slabs consist of reinforced concrete and the walls of rammed earth. This Vernacular design approach reduces building costs and considers the availability of materials indigenous to this particular region and thus reflects local traditions and cultural practices.

In addition to it, the prefabricated rammed earth panels are 40cm thick. In this way, the heat during the day fails to heat the interior wall surface while, during the cold evenings, the accumulated heat releases into the dwellings and warms up the air. The dense three-story structure provides the necessary shading but also allows enough light to the patios.

THE GARDEN OF MUSICAL DELIGHTS

A concert hall and urban reactivation

9 semester, UACEG

Prof. Panayot Savov

a place to be astonished to slow down to shut off the external and to turn inwards

the music can now touch you innumerable worlds are created imagination dances the social structure collapses you are a creator again you dictate the rules contemplate you could be anything you are free music is not the end point it is a springboard

to yourself

railway station

former tram depot

Imaginary worlds in between

In order to fully immerse oneself in the world of sound-activated fantasy, one needs to be cleansed of the influence of the environment that can be traced in the image of nature. A garden in its iconic sense (a form that resembles a meaning) invites man to separate himself from the dynamic city in which the utilitarian triumphs and to turn his gaze inward.

The garden embraces within itself the structure of the environment as it preserves the composition of scattered large and small functional elements giving them a different expression according to the needs of the new musical center. The added dense vegetation contributes to the air quality in the area and ensures tiny slits through which the visitor can wander and observe the garden differently every time.

08 covered piazza

09 musical pavillions

07 garden view

Concert hall

The assembly consists of fragmented pre-existing buildings unified by the wild vegetation newly planted in between. An underground link connects the old industrial tram depot and the electrical substation building. The main foyer distributes the visitors to the main concert hall and the chamber hall. The multifunctional hall is located under the restaurant and accessible from two points. The access between the concert hall and the multifunctional hall could be controllable by moveable walls in the cloakroom area.

In the most distant part of the park, there is an open-air stage where visitors can enjoy musical concerts on the warm summer nights in the city.

A vertical musical school

The tower is located closest to the main boulevard and is distinct from the rest of the architectural ensemble by its verticality. It is a new attractor point, a symbol of the infused urban intervention. Inside, a new center for cultural life is born.

The building is newly built and in a strict form, referring to the surrounding panel blocks, creating a feeling of symbolic monumentality. The tower houses the music school, a recording studio, and a top-floor library with a terrace. Each level contains a different function. (singing, playing, dancing, etc.)

Musical pavilion

Another essential is the surrounding wall that derives from the densely built space typology of the complex and encloses the garden space creating a safe space for enjoyment.

The pavilion installation consists of vertical steel tubes in different sizes and cuts to conduct the sound of the rehearsal rooms underground to the garden above.

In this way, an environment of serenity and calmness provokes profound contemplative experience bringing you closer to the divine moment of creation. Here one forgets about the mundane everyday dynamics and could travel in their own time and space of fantasies.

SCALE BAR 1:100

SCALE BAR 1:250

SCALE BAR 1:200

SCALE BAR 1:50

Fragment of the installation in the musical garden and the rehearsal rooms underneath

ISLAND OF DESIRE

Master thesis project

11th semester, UACEG

Prof. Panayot Savov

The project explores the subcultural movements developed in Berlin during the Cold War and, specifically - the cultural phenomena around techno music and its connection to the urban spaces and the intricate historical context.

The intervention in the Tempelhof airport building and adjacent area is symbolic. The newly added towers enclose a metaphorical island that is a physical manifestation of the quintessential human drive for freedom triggered by the socio-political conditions of the Cold War epoch.

One constantly lingers in-between contrasting borderlines in search of a sense of belonging.

Geneology of techno culture and its relation ot borders

The reason why I started this research was my admiration of the music and a great desire to go beyond the negative connotation of this cultural movement. I perceived it as an explorer. I was surprised to descover that it all began in Detroit, USA, as it was a hub for electronics production, but at the same time place of extreme segregation and marginalization of Black people.

Case study on borders

Berlin, Germany

good-bad

The opposition between ideologies where one is portrayed as better than the other creates a strong desire for borderline crossing.

When the Berlin Wall was erected, the area along it became uninhabitable, and most of the buildings became vacant, leading to the marginalization of some groups. At this point, the center acquired the qualities of the periphery and vice versa.

Belfast, Northern Ireland

good-good

In this case, both sides perceive themselves as good and reject the values and morals of the opposition. This approach leads to the strengthening of the physical and mental borders and differences.

Then the music of the new age - electronic music evolved extremely attractive with its absence of text, and alien sounds, resembling a space odyssey - something outside of man, which brings him on a journey through unexplored and utopian territories. There you can remake yourself and be whatever you desire.

Observations

1. decadence (for example, segregation led to extreme and spatial separation)

2. existing material border - the Berlin wall that generated a powerful desire for runaway

3. opposition of ideologies where one of them is perceived as good and the other as bad

4. critical group of individuals in transition that want to construct their own ideology marginalized communities in search of identity

voids, islands, social architecture, people in transition

Factors that led to the techno culture outburst in Berlin

The Tempelhof airport was built between 1936 and 1941 and is no longer functioning.

It is now in the city’s heart as the urban sprawl left this large territory untouched and like a fresh breather in the dense sur roundings.

The airport was part of West Germany during the Cold War and particularly belonged to the Americans. For this reason, it holds physical evidence of this cultural junction as the basketball hall just above the main hall, bowling, and furniture. The numerous investor inquiries didn’t lead to a transformation of the area into a residential one because of the activists’ groups of architects and citizens.

existing field condition

References

An island is any object lost in an endless extension of a uniform element. As such, the island is isolated. The island is by definition remote, separated, intimately alternative. The island is elsewhere.

San Rocco Magazine: Islands

O. M. Ungers’s “Berlin as Green Archipelago”

the project consisted of approximately sixty isolated “urban islands” floating within the ocean of open spaces surrounded by the Berlin Wall

Cocepts appropriated by Gilles Deleuze”s Desert Islands continental island - a fragment, a remnant in the city’s urban fabric; could be explored and understood through its connection to the environment and history

oceanic island - an autonomic system whose outer borders relate equally to the outer world in a defensive manner

Characteristics of the location

experimentations with models

open-closed fortress wall fortress wall 01 Tempelhof airport building

Refugee camp 03 airplane runaways

urban gadens

Central park, New York 3800 acres

Tempelhofer feld 3500 acres

personal archive

personal archive

Location map of Berlin

central city area

Berliner Ringbahn Tempelhof airport

Morphology of the towers

I explored the morphologhy of the existing towers of the airport building in search of a new sutble formal expression that has a poetic meaning.

Existing towers

new functional scheme(orange-refugee camp; yellow-recoring studios,audio and visual archive,museum and exhibition space)

symbolic gesture that marks the methaphorical island

experimentations with models on borderline conditions:

The variable configurations and variations symbolize different borderline conditions according to their relation to the inside and the outside of the circle. Paradoxically the inner part portrays “the utopian no man’s land” where one could be free of inherited connotations, whereas the outside stands for the old world order.

openings:

experiments in search of common structucal language

stucture of a single tower unit

dissembled unit combinations

living organism

new spatial organisation

personal archive

Spatial organisation of the new interventions

The research resulted in a proposal to reuse Tempelhof airport but keep its symbolic meaning and structural organization of the area, characterized by an opposition between the center and periphery and the appearance of the building as a giant protective fortress.

1.the circus

2.the library

3. the observation tower

4.the new square

5. the new refugee camp 01 new circus 02 the library

the observation tower

the new open square in front of the central airport building 05 the new refugee camp

the restaurant 07 new urban gardens 08 newly planted forest

The linear refugee camp

functional organisation of the linear refugee park towers transformed into living units + 28.00 m

view at the main square and the community newly added walkway under the console construction

exsiting playground integrated into the exhibition trail

The museum

Here, the museum is the space in itself. Key to the organization of the exposition is the central hall in its original form, which is a kind of time capsule transporting visitors to the last century.

The hall is now a freely accessed vestibule space before the controlled area.

MUSEUM OF EMOTIONS

theoretical research and concept design

11 semester, UACEG

Prof. Panayot Savov

The Museum of Emotions explores various hypotheses about the healing process of the crippled human spirit, asking: “Is a space that heals the soul possible at all, or does it only serve as a springboard to something beyond?”

experimental models part one: filters

The monument to the Soviet Army has been standing in the heart of Sofia since 1954. It symbolizes the Russian support in freeing Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire. With time it has become a debate stage because of its political ideology and the controversial opinions it provokes in people.

Location map of Sofia

King’s memorial

wide and orthogonally organised square in front of the monument

King’s gardens

city area monument pond

former King’s Zoo garden that contained it wild structure and abundand vegetation

social filters and memories

cult symbol of desire for freedom, self expression and political debate

victory social layers

trauma

a tree in the adjacent garden

photoshoped image

public archive

personal archive personal archive personal archive

Turkish embassy

Hypothesis I

Genealogy of healing space

A healing place makes one feels calm and safe enough to collide with every mind construct that forbade him from connecting with the authentic self.

The monument as a portalmetaphor of the human essence

The monument’s highly emotionally charged nature serves as a turning point of a collision between the personality and the trauma. This phenomenon creates a symbolic portal, an opportunity to face one’s inner struggles and overcome them and thus move closer to free the authentic self from the imposed stigmatized beliefs.

intangible/unconscious

blending with the surroundings

social conditioning memorable events

primal forgotten memories

imaginary scenario

experimental models part two: interaction conscious/unconscious

personal archive

experimental models part three: portals

Change of meaning

At the bottom of the trauma healing hypotheses is changing the meaning of the event, place, or people that provoke it, but not their complete depersonalization. What if a well-known space becomes something else just by a small physical intervention?

The place becomes a homogenous field in which no single object except man himself dominates.

Thus the human soul subdues and creates everything around it. He takes his inherent creative role. The monument is no longer a giant that overtakes but a distant memory.

The white colored tiles suggest the longing for transgression and going beyond the visible.

Symbolic portals

The monument generates atmosphere around itself, resulting in a dense field of invisible systems bearing objective and poetic meanings. Some structural layers can be noticed through their physical manifestations in the adjacent area, while others remain entirely within the human psychogeography.

Hypothesis III

Intersection between systems

The subconscious determines the consciousness and all the mechanisms by which we function. That is why the space around the monument is defined as the conscious as we can see and touch it. The subconscious manifests through the orthogonal spatial network that projects onto the environment and defines it.

The interplay between these systems reprpesents a different version of portal, similar to hypothesis II.

The two systems form a new structure that homogenizes the field but also separates it in a new way into three typologies of space:

1. tunnels of the subconscious;

2. locked by the grid frame fields that are a fragmented manifestation of the mind, where, like artifacts in a museum, the bearers of trauma are sealed;

3. portals - through which you can pass between the two systems.

portals

Variation 1

artefacts locked into the grid

Variation 2

exsisting park

experimental models part four: intersection between systems

HIDDEN EXISTENCE

A workshop for EASA on the topic “REALITY” August, 2021

tutors: Stanimira Getova and Ivan Tsurov

The European Architecture Students Assembly (EASA) is organised by students, for students and offers an unique framework for education, accommodating a non institutionalised way of teaching, learning and exchange. It exists since 1981 and has succeeded the past 40 years because of the enthusiasm and the voluntary work the members of the community provide.

It gives a chance to experience architecture in a way that universities are not yet providing by bringing students to a certain context, defined by the different location and theme of the assembly each year, where they have to raise architectural questions themselves and investigate them through the eyes of all European cultures simultaneously.

HIDDEN EXISTENCE is an experimental case study of individuals experiencing the reality of blind people within different house typologies and observing their reactions, thoughts, and emotions concerning the space and when its perception feels like home.

For this purpose, the four scenarios were developed using wooden panels, fabrics, and quintessential home elements such as spices, candles, books, radio, and blankets to engage all human senses and explore their dimensions and ability to provoke powerful associations and memories.

existing house of exploration

participant tutor

Scenario 1: linear

This spatial organization portrays a straightforward approach to the home for a blind person that derives from most of the research papers investigated. According to most reports, the visually impaired find it easier to orient in a logically structured subsequent environment that guides them by tactile marks distinguishing the functional zones.

section scenario 1

plan scenario 1

Scenario 2: periphery

This scenario is a structural modification of the linear one while giving the inhabitant chance to navigate through space and choose in what sequence to experience it. All of the functional zones are distributed along the periphery and easily recognizable.

section scenario 2

plan scenario 2

Scenario 3: center

It aims to represent a ‘safe space’ in the middle that contains everything. This spatial planning presents the blindfolded with the opportunity to have all the essentials within hand reach and to explore whether this makes one feel more centered and at ease within the darkness.

Scenario 4 : chaos

It was a radical experiment challenging the participants’ psyche and their ability to adapt first to the fact that they cannot rely on their most used and fundamental sense and secondly to navigate through an illogically organized environment.

section scenario 3 section scenario 4

plan scenario 3

plan scenario 4

Through discussions and exercises, we challenged them to recreate together the spatial organization of the house according to their experience and memories.

Encompassed by all noted observations, the contrasting reflections between scenarios one and four are fundamental. While the linear distribution that contained a ritualistic axis leading to the cozy sofa surrounded by candles, in the end, had a calming effect and provoked deep emotional responses in the participants, the chaotic one evoked childhood memories and the “homo ludens” aspect in everyone making them open to outer exploration and playfulness rather than looking within.

All participants depicted their experience on a piece of paper (10cm by 10cm) in whatever manner they decided.

Slavena Todorova

exhibition

Mishel Kirova

Darina Boncheva

Andrea

Maria Radeva

PHOTOGRAPHY

People and their relation to places personal project ongoing