Grigor Doytchinov
of the National Palace of Culture and to create a new dominant public place
named “Bulgaria”. It is of symbolic meaning for the spiritual change in the
society that the character of the new place is defined from the very beginning
as an identification place for the people of Sofia and a location for culture and
leisure, in difference to the representative shape of the largo from the Stalinist
era.
The first step to a final conversion of the area is set with the attempt to locate
the new National Opera in the contact zone. The discussion starts with an
international competition, 1972.^30 The competition results confirm that the
location is predestinated for an outstanding public building and place, and that
it is of surplus for the development of the city center. The location is limited
between the inner and secondary ring-roads of Sofia and the initial point of the
Southern Park, which is in a realization process. But the frame conditions of the
location are very contradictive, being the link between the urban core and the
Southern Park. The main entrance of the building has obviously to be oriented
to the city center in the north, but the attractive view to the topographic
formations and the park in the south has to be respected too. The contradiction
means that a conventional scheme of an opera building with an official entrance
and a backside is not suitable for the location. Another problem is that the big
volume of the building doesn’t have to close the entrance to the park and the
view to the silhouette of the topography. No building can be more important
Fig. 10
The plan, 1963, expresses the
ambitious vision for the great
structural change typical in
that period. (Reproduction,
Arhitektura)