Location: Sofia

Year: 2018

Team: Silvia Chakarova, Despina Kaneva, Nurhan Redzheb, Pavel Yanchev, Galina Aleksova, Magdalena Bogdanova

Status: Conceptual study

Ivan Vazov St development concept

In the process of working on the Action Plan for Implementation of the ‘Public Life and Public Space 2017‘ Report our team was invited by Sofia Municipality to develop a pro-bono conceptual study for Ivan Vazov St as a shared space.

Ivan Vazov St is a narrow and charming street in the centre of Sofia connecting important places and landmarks like the Ivan Vazov National Theater, the City Garden, the Ivan Vazov Museum-House and the Knyazheska Garden.

The condition of the street at the moment of project development was very poor with bad quality pavement on the sidewalks that pose a serious challenge for pedestrians walking the street. The very narrow sidewalks couldn’t accommodate the high number of pedestrians passing by daily.

The priorities that our team defined in developing the conceptual study were as follows:

• increasing the urban environment quality
• improving the walking and cycling conditions
• creating a people and human-scale oriented street
• providing high quality public spaces
• decreasing the car traffic
• decreasing the environmental and air pollution

In developing the concept we focused on the potential of turning Ivan Vazov St into a shared street with more space for pedestrians, and public buildings and retail users, with traffic calming measures and designating small recreation and greenery pockets.

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The major principles Ivan Vazov St development concept is based on are:

In the work process and as a result of public consultations feedback we developed a second option without the chicane – a curve in the car lane as a traffic calming measure.