International Competition to Design a New Library in Varna Between emotion and professionalism Pencho Slaveykov Public Library - Varna

The Library BEFORE NOW The FUTURE ‘Pencho Slaveykov’ Public Library in Varna was established in the year 1883. The Library is a depositary of Bulgarian national literature with an archival function until 1945. BEFORE NOW The FUTURE The new library building should: Collect under one roof approximately 900 000 library items, now spread in 6 different buildings; Establish a modern library - comfortable and easy to use; Create a new and active public space in the centre of the city for cultural, educational, social purposes; Suggest a good alternative for recreation and leisure time.

The Beginning “The library is the face of every town. That is the reason to recently announce an international competition at which to choose the best suggestion for a new home of Pencho Slaveykov Public Library in Varna.“ Ivan Portnih Town Mayor

Local Authorities’ Support The competition is unique to the country for a public building with library and information, cultural, educational and entertainment purposes. The expectation for the new library of the city is to be the first in Bulgaria for the last 30 years.

The Competition The competition was organized by: Varna Municipality in cooperation with the Chamber of Architects in Bulgaria The independent architectural organization WhAT Association. “Pencho Slaveykov” Public Library - Varna http://varnalibrary.bg/

The New Library Place The choice of the location in the heart of the city is in support of the idea to create a modern library.

Organizers’ Responsibilities Varna Municipality – the architectural stage Prepare the documents needed for organizing and announcing the competition according to the Bulgarian legislation WhaT Association Communicate with the potential participants Prepare a web site of the competition Provide requirements for participation Choose the members of the expert jury

Organizers’ Responsibilities (2) Pencho Slaveykov Public Library Create the functional model as a part of the general requirements Conduct an information campaign General for the three teams Good cooperation and communication Informal communication

Library Team Responsibilities Create a team – choose experts with different professional profile Librarian – expert in serving users Librarian – expert in library and information processing and procedure interaction Expert with engineering profile Creative professional The general condition is the whole team to be broad- minded and think ahead not only for the library profession but to create a new cultural and information space

Finalizing the Competition Requirements Series of meetings between the library team and WhaT Association Our functional model was built on several main requirements and expectations of the future library building

Functional Model Developing of this functional model is one of the most challenging tasks for the Library team

Parameters vs. Vision NEW! Library items Building area 886 000  1 266 000 Building area 4 000 m2  18 500 m2 Community parking ------  11 000 m2 NEW! The future library building must be in an alliance with the surrounding areas and spaces

Project Timetable Competition for an idea project - Announcement: 7 September 2015 - Submission deadline: 23 November 2015 - Awarding: 28-29 November 2015 Architectural design - Beginning: September 2016 - Deadline: Autumn 2017 Real construction phase - Beginning: 2018 - Deadline: 2020

The Big Competition Surprise... The contest brought together 370 proposals from 66 countries: Europe - 249 proposals Bulgaria (86), Italy (29), Spain (15), France (12) ... Asia – 62 India (13), China (9), Hong Kong (7), Japan (6), Iran (6) ... North America – 41 USA (35), Canada (4), Mexico (2) South America – 10 Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru Africa – 6 Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda Australia – 2

One Conclusion and an Intriguing Fact The large number of submitted entities is a prerequisite for finding the most interesting and appropriate idea and can be used as a "manual" to track the trends in contemporary architecture Intriguing: The competition for "Guggenheim" museum in Helsinki, held in 2014, has gathered 1715 entities

International Jury Highly qualified experts in building design and architecture from different continents and Bulgaria

Working on the Field

And the Winners are…

Project Dissemination Please, meet our travelling exhibition! Exhibition: The Competition for a New Library Building

Exhibition Travelling Places First visit: ХХVІ National Annual Conference of Bulgarian Library and Information Association, Sofia, 9-10 June 2016 Second visit: Varna EXPO – construction, exterior, interior, Varna Palace of Culture and Sports, 14-16 October 2016 Third visit: Annual Awarding Construction Exhibition, Grand Mall Varna, 25-31 October 2016 And now: AT HOME

Thank you very much for your attention! Tsvetelina Voycheva, PhD Temenuga Kalcheva office@libvar.bg