ROCK CLIMBING CENTRE
location: Sofia, Bulgaria
program: mixed use / urban design - sporting complex, restaurants, offices, car parking,
status: competition and exhibition
Undertaken in collaboration with artist Peter Jivkov, this is a competition proposal for a rock climbing and sporting complex along with other supporting functions. The design work was exhibited in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The designed complex is envisioned as an inclusive urban solution to the project brief and its context. The existing expansive site is created into an undulating landscape of sociable and active spaces utilising the typology of the wall as a formal device for delineating space, framing views, and to strategically connect to the surrounding landscape. While the walls create monumental internal or external spaces, at the same time they themselves are actually occupiable, also enabling the creation of varied smaller and more intimate atmospheres.
The complex is highly dynamic and accessible, whether it be to pedestrians, vehicles, by bicycle, wheelchair or even by climbing walls or ropes. The project involves inexpensive construction techniques utilising simple rectilinear building elements. Complexity and richness are achieved through the creative use of light, contrasts of form, and the manipulation of a sense of openness or enclosure.
