On 18th October 2018 “Sofia – a city for people. Steps towards the transformation of the city” exhibition was launched in the new pedestrian space of Sofia. It didn’t have the chance to survive quite long in the physical public space so we share it digitally with you.
The exhibition presents a shared vision for the city centre development as a network of key public spaces and enhanced pedestrian connections. It gives us the opportunity to look at the streets from a different perspectives – as lively places where the public life flourishes.
Last year Sofia municipality started “Sofia – a city for people” project. The first phase included studying public spaces and public life based on the methodology developed by Prof. Jan Gehl and his studio Gehl who accepted the invitation of Sofia municipality’s Mayor Yordanka Fandakova and Sofia municipality’s Chief architect Zdravko Zdravkov to work on the project.
A team of volunteers, urban planners and architects, together with Henriette Vamberg and Lisa Müller studied who, how and when is using key public spaces in the city centre, and which streets attract more pedestrians and which more bicycles or cars. The goal was to gather empirical data that can be used as a basis for future development recommendations. In October 2018 the work was collected in “Sofia: Public Space and Public Life 2017” report that gives visions, recommendations and possible measures and projects for transforming Sofia’s urban environment into a more people-oriented and pedestrian-friendly space.
The exhibition presents the work in progress on the second phase of the project – the development of an Action plan for implementation of the Report. It aims at specifying and prioritising short-term, mid-term, and long-term measures and projects for urban transformations. The Action plan is developed by Sofia municipality’s Architecture and Urban Planning Department in collaboration with place.make studio, Galina Aleksova and Pavel Yanchev.
The exhibition is also a way to inform and include the citizens of Sofia in the process of transforming the city into a city for people.
Enjoy!
The exhibition materials are developed as part of the Action plan project and they are property of Sofia municipality.