170 години от основаването на първото бъ

The New Bulgarian Community Center

Dr. Arch. Aneta Slavova

The new Bulgarian community center as a challenge in the 21st century. The topic is innovative for the conditions in our country with morally outdated and depreciated community center buildings.

Our success depends on our spiritual foundation, the richness of our connections, the strength of our families and the character of our communities. These communities are an interdisciplinary process for the local people of a neighborhood, for example, strongly tied to the new school, to the new community center, which shelters everyone, for various activities, 365 days a year, as a social factor for a more meaningful life. The community center is returning and becoming a cultural, social phenomenon and mediator for the community, in the new cultural and educational centers of the 21st century. We are contemporaries of a great dynamic of changes today. In them, architecture has a leading role in these processes in society, even more specifically in the strategic areas of education and culture.
Against this background - Where are we ?

"Human power is never the product of individual effort. It is always born from the cooperation of large numbers of people." Yuval Harari

The Focus - The Community Center is Back! And its future is connected to architecture. As of January 2016 , the number of registered community centers in Bulgaria was 3614. In December 2017 , Bulgarian community centers were included in the Register of Good Practices for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, maintained by UNESCO .

How can the community center building change lives towards a more meaningful future?

Integrated, flexible, with many opportunities today, it can be a symbol of a better community. Bulgaria is rich in talents, in quality people in culture, who can act as a locomotive to pull the nation into the future.

What does the native Bulgarian community center look like now? Closed, outdated, suffering, unable to welcome people as a second home, people are not in it. The Bulgarian community center today in the 21st century does not correspond to the times, with a functional structure from more than 100 years ago. The big question is, what happens when the old morally outdated model of the native community center is renovated?, of a library?, of a school???

The short answer is - we are multiplying the old model for the next 50 years... Why?

Is this the path to the future and the cultural and educational growth of our nation? If we analyze how much money is invested in renovation - "renovation", we notice that in practice we are reproducing the old model for decades to come and paying money for it... Why?

We, the architects, have the say, together with the responsible institutions and politicians.

When analyzing how to change as a society for the better, there are two surefire paths:

1. Education - a difficult and cumbersome process for years...

2. Cultural growth of the nation, ready to work immediately, as long as we provide the environment.
We have both in the community centers!

From isolated places, community centers can become open, dynamic social catalysts, where people's everyday experiences become an integral part of learning. The result is an engaging environment that transforms towards more meaningful lives.

Why is the emphasis today on the Bulgarian community center?

If education cannot lead us powerfully, then we remain on autopilot mainly with culture! There is no one stopping us from doing miracles! There are no restrictive laws to comply with. There are quite a few brakes for education. For culture – community centers have two big ones:

The inertia of time?!

The inertia of piecemeal programs and redevelopment?!

We architects have a mission, we can create the new environment, motivating, provoking, as is the example of leading societies in Europe.

Where are we architects today?
First of all, the architectural guild has a mission, and it is - to show the path, the process of the dynamic changes that have occurred in the way of life in society in the 21st century, how this reflects on future generations, on children.

I will give the example of Israel - there has been a "cry" for decades for improving school buildings to meet the new, ever-changing needs of education.

On this occasion, a network of architects has been created that does not allow a school building that is "old in terms of layout and context" to be approved for construction or reconstruction, which was shared by Jacob Hecht in Sofia at an international Democratic School Conference.

An important question remains - Renovation - "To be or not to be?" Where is the place of renovation in this complex and expensive investment process? We are absorbing funds and implementing thermal engineering measures without improving the meaning of the environment and its activity for these same people of the 21st century.