Silviya Aytova

Bartlett year out essay

“Are recessions good for architecture? Discuss this in relation
to your experiences during your year out”

In recent years there have been several external forces that

have influenced the nature of the professional practice in
architecture in my country – Bulgaria. The current recession was
almost inevitable after the building boom since 2002 that led
Bulgaria, especially through the construction industry, to become
the leading magnet for investment in Europe. And I am saying
inevitable mainly because of the mass production of projects and
their realizations based on poor design, bad urban strategies or
even none of them and extremely bad accomplishment due to low
qualified construction firms. All of those elements, combined with
the World Financial Crises lead to an immense downturn in the
architecture field as a whole. During my practice in a small
architectural firm in Bulgaria for the past two years, I have
observed a movement towards a more radical and critical
rethinking about the future of architecture and the way it shapes
my country. It is probably true that only through taught times, we
learn from the mistakes we have made and something new is born
afterwards “I think that from this crisis will emerge another
moment,” says Alvaro Siza, when talked of a return to austerity
and consideration in architecture “An architecture that is essential
and not reliant on things that are not needed.” ¹
Bulgarian Black sea coast

In this essay I will argue in three different directions, mainly

emphasizing on the positives that are coming from the current
recession. In my practice through the projects and the attitudes
observed in clients and developers this recession was necessary in
terms of chastening what came to be once one of the most beautiful
sea resorts on the Black Sea- Sunny Beach. In my practice I
worked on several projects in Sunny beach and Nessebar, which
are two of the best-known summer resorts in Bulgaria, just 10 km
from each other. Also my family has a house in Nessebar and I
usually spend my summers there, therefore I have a lot of
opportunity to gain insider impression that this recession will help
bring architecture to another level in my country: “It is a good
opportunity to evaluate the work done, and how it can be done
better in the new future that lays in front of us.” ² In the second
part of the essay, that is looking at the practical side of the matter
and deals with short term opportunities, I will argue that recession
is frustrating for the architects and thus this can transfer to the
architecture itself. “I think this will be the Renaissance Age all
over again, with many of us reinventing ourselves, and going from
Architecture, to more generic design, to other completely different
fields of work.” ³ I cannot consider this as a completely negative
aspect of the recession. This brings me to my last argument which
will have no clear answer on the positives or negatives of a
recession and will just address some issues that might or might not
bring architecture to a greater standard in terms of esthetics,
efficiency, sustainability, feasibility, comfort, social aspects, ect.
“Are recessions good for architecture? As painful as
downturns may be, a bracing change often betters the built
environment. A go-go economy licenses too many complacent
ideas, and too much overwrought styling. Fewer buildings go up in
a recession, but those that do are subject to more thought and self-
examination, and they tend to be more sensitive calibrators of a
changing culture. In other words, a recession is often the moment
when architecture finds its future.” ⁴ I agree completely with this
statement and given the current situation, there is no better time to
move towards a brighter future for the architecture. I have been in
a small architectural firm of eight people when I joined the practice
(now they are five). We were mainly working on residential
projects at the Bulgarian seaside resort Sunny Beach and other
office and residential buildings in the capital Sofia, where we were
based. The building boom in Sunny beach started around 2002
when many foreign investors saw Bulgarian market very attractive.
“To date, 2003 was the single best year for the Bulgarian property
market. In that one year alone, housing prices doubled. In fact,
analysts expect prices to rise by about 25% in 2007 and to rise by a
full 100% within the next several years. Investor’s are so positive
that they have begun scooping up property in all of Bulgaria’s
prime locations.” ⁵ This economic situation gave an enormous
boost for fast production of projects and their materialization
without any considerations about the long term benefit of the
resort. This was even further invigorated by no real urban
strategies, laws and restrictions from the government in order to
preserve the unique dunes and nature of the resort.

Sunny Beach with its golden sand dunes

Quick and easy money was the main objective of the developers
wanting to invest as little as possible and gain as much as possible.
On the other hand more and more architects pumped out of
nowhere without any experience and vision to gain a good name.
They were solely interested in the money they can get, also
combined with no high requirements from their clients other than
low cost and short time to complete a project. All these factors led
to the creation of not well thought and expedient buildings that
were poorly designed, poorly built, not efficient and destroyed
nature. Traditionally, Bulgarian buildings are made from
unreinforced brick with concrete stucco, or more recently, from
steel-reinforced concrete with brick infill. They are energy
inefficient, heavy, and take a long time to build. Wood and steel
frame buildings are almost unknown. This situation offers many
opportunities to promote high-tech building materials based on
advanced technology combined with sustainable solutions. The
idea of promoting new ways in construction would not be possible
without the massive escape of the tourists in our resorts not merely
due to the recession but also to the building up of the resort at the
expense of green areas and wide virgin beaches. “Fall between 20
and 25% were reported in our seaside hotels, even third line and
deeper into the complex are virtually empty.” ⁶ I believe this
period of time, where no buyers for properties although the prices
has fallen twice since 2007, is a good lesson to learn for the future.
“As others have pointed out, there's an upside to recessions. They
give people time to step back from the frantic pace of a boom
economy and think hard about what it is they want to do. In a time
of limited resources, architects and their clients will focus again on
solving the practical problems of making an environment that is, in
every sense of today's overused word, sustainable.” ⁷ I have
attached several photos of showing how built up is Sunny Beach at
the moment.
 Indeed I think that recession is good thing about architecture
and brings the automatic question of what went wrong or what can
we change and how we can improve the quality of life, attract
investment and be at the same time ecologically friendly with the
buildings we design. Although that is a big step to make from what
was before, the Bulgarian architecture is starting to address all
those issues in order to respond to the need. I consider that the new
architecture will be much more thoughtful, taking into account
social and environmental problems, really talking and considering
sustainability and sustainable methods of design. “There's nothing
like a recession for bringing architecture back to its senses. With
less being built, there's time to think.” ⁸ It is the end of the era of
easy money and profits over 100%, earned without investing in all
those aspects of a building, which makes it modern, environment
and human friendly. The new market is screaming for architecture
that responds to the needs of this century and a society that has
evolved over the centuries.
When I joined the firm “Modus 313” they had already started
a project of a residential building in Nessebar, near Sunny Beach,
which I see as a reasonably good design in terms of esthetics but
not addressing the issue of sustainability and the wider context of
the area.

“Kristal”, Nessebar
Integrating those issues in the design does not always mean more
costly projects but is a question of motivating the client to seek it
and be one step ahead of it’s time. “The challenge will be to
convince the clients that good design can add value without cost.
The architecture will need to be considered…” ⁹ It is also a time
to re-think where are the public spaces and weather we have
thought about them, is there something missing. Now is the right
time and opportunity to re-look at how we practice architecture.
“One group of people who always look on the bright side during a
recession is the conservation lobby. Less good existing stuff gets
knocked down.” ¹⁰ This is another example of how not only the
recession has a tendency to create good architecture for the future
but also to protect the existing historical one. In Sofia there was a
common practice with the help of the municipality to wait for a
historical building to get so destroyed through time, so that they
can knock them down and build a new office building in an
attractive central part of the city. This recession brings a lot of
questions and provocations to the world of architecture and that is
only the starting point of a much desired change that will lead to
the creation of a better architecture tomorrow. “The original report,
authored by AMION Consulting and Taylor Young, concluded that
there was strong evidence that economic, social and environmental
returns increase with better design. Equally, the costs of bad design
can be very substantial in economic, social and environmental
terms…Despite the current economic climate, high quality design
is still critical, perhaps more so, to maximize the benefits of
investment in the physical landscape…These benefits include the
commercial returns of new development as well as a range of
wider economic, social and environmental benefits. Moreover, the
promotion of good design has an essential role to play in ‘place
making’, which is emerging in government policy as a key strand
of the regeneration process in our towns and cities." ¹¹








But
is recession always the good scenario, we might argue in a
different direction. The recession creates high levels of
unemployment among the architects and in the other design
specialty areas. That really means no work, no design, no
stimulation to continue being an architect at that particular
moment. In short term these negatives could be transferred even to
the few project that are currently in progress. When there is no
money in the field and a great fear of the upcoming return that the
developers can expect there is a tendency of investing even less
then before so they can get back the money they have put
considering only the situation now. This is more true to a greater
extend for the projects that were design before the crises end are
built now. Clients are cutting cost even further, sometimes
ignoring the requirement of the already designed building in order
to retain the expected profits. In Bulgaria, only developers thinking
ahead of time will see the investment in sustainable and delicate
architecture as reasonable and such that will pay it’s money in the
future and will be appreciated by it’s users in the long term.
In my architectural practice this winter we worked on the
design of a restaurant-bar-lounge on the beach in Sunny Beach that
comprises of a first floor kitchen for the restaurant with a bar at the
front, also outside seating places and a second semi open terrace
for the restaurant. What actually happened without the knowledge
of the architect was to cut cost dramatically down resulting in the
creation of one floor bar that has a bare connection with it’s
original design. This attitude is damaging the architecture but I
believe is an approach only for the short term as more and more
people will run away from bad design.
“A lot of people are going to look again at schemes on the drawing
board and work out how they can become more efficient, and how
to get costs down…” ¹² In our case getting costs further down will
not be the right move, given the fact that projects usually are
already with low budgets. There is a need to move toward higher
quality design, investing more and decreasing profits respectively,
if our clients want to compete in even more demanding market.
However, thinking back through architects’ point of view, that will
be a really hard time. “Now, having shrunk, firms may decide to
stay smaller. Rather than… hiring experts in special building types,
they may rely increasingly on alliances with other firms. And
rather than adding full-time staff when work comes in, they may
continue to hire temporary employees.” ¹³ In support of this
observation, our office consisted of eight full time employees,
however, in May we remained five when I decided to leave instead
of waiting, unknown how long, for projects or any other work to
come at all. Very likely others can consider completely different
professions: “Young architects will find that the traditional entry
provided by drafting jobs has been foreclosed by computer-assisted
design. Thwarted by the economy and technology, they may
forsake traditional design work entirely for careers in real estate,
government, teaching, construction, environmental preservation or
nonprofit organizations.” ¹⁴ Its not clear if the limited
employment opportunities in the architecture industry will lead to
positive or negative influence. On the one hand the positive will be
that when there is a wide choice of architecture offices now
competing for limited number of investors, only the best will
remain. Architects have to offer a more varied knowledge, skills
and abilities in addition to be competitive and to sell their ideas.
That will take the architecture produced and the methods of
creating it on another level. On the other hand some very talented
and potentially good architects can change their direction of
professional realization forever. "We're in a new business," said
Richard Roth Jr., chairman of Emery Roth & Sons, a 94-year-old
firm. "We saw the handwriting on the wall that architecture is not
going to be the bread and butter of the 1990's, so we formed an
interiors company." ¹⁵ Interiors has always been the second
choice of an architect as merely interior projects, but they become
more and more desirable during a recession where people prefer to
renovate the old they have and need interior solutions rather then
building new. That is the case in Bulgaria as well: “Bulgarian
construction stopped, but not the household repairs” ¹⁶ But still is
the architect who can make the most of the rising tide of interest in
good design, while it is accompanied by a tightening economic
climate. But how? “By selling the idea that it is architects who are
best placed to design the interiors that will survive a downturn, an
upturn and whatever else the future brings. When architects design
interiors, they respond to both the space and the client, producing
designs with an integrity that will long outlast the 3D branding
concepts. Architecture is the sustainable interiors solution — and
that’s worth paying for in a downturn more than ever.” ¹⁷ But
weather a swift towards interior design will help architects
improve is debatable. Some will experiment in trying to promote
new architecture while other will stay where the safe option is. As
a whole architecture is regarded as not essential in our culture and
especially in an economic crisis so it will be the last to recover.
Indeed, it is very difficult to be sure of where the future will lead
the development in architecture, but yet there is a tendency for
architectural action to be followed by reaction, and reaction by
further reaction. Therefore, I think those reaction will be crucial in
understanding where should the architecture head on. Still
“Architecture, more than most arts, requires, and even demands,
optimism even in the face of the most severe economic
downturns.” ¹⁸And this positive attitude should precede a more
critical examination of the work done and a more clear vision for
the future. “It might be a difficult sell to the thousand or so
architects now claiming the jobseeker’s allowance, but the
economic slowdown will force the design community to take a step
back and examine the work it is doing in more detail. A recession
is indisputably bad for architects, but it could be good for
architecture.” ¹⁹Architects should explore new kinds of buildings
and technology sometimes accepting smaller but architecturally
challenging commissions so that they can offer something new and
promote this idea. Although it is sad that so many of them have to
continue without some of their best employees, it is a time when
firms should rethink their structure and philosophical approach. A
moment to step back and evaluate the work done, a moment of real
search and change. In conclusion, I agree with the statement that
“Recessions are a time for architects to rethink their game. They
need not despair – but, rather, regroup for the next boom. For a
while, I think there may well be a reaction to the fireworks of the
past decade. Architects such as the Tokyo practices of Toyo Ito
and Sanaa point to one highly inventive, yet gentle future.” ²⁰And
that is in a world perspective! How much more the architecture in
Bulgaria needs a much gentle approach, a future in which we have
to consider its wider aspects and responsibility to the society and
the nature. Unfortunately, human nature is such that we learn the
most important lessons only through hard times like now. With
respect to the creation of architecture that is not merely pleasing
the esthetics or solely investing in practical solutions I believe that
the architecture will become more adequate in ways combining
them, as well as looking into methods of addressing new vital
issues. It is a way that sometimes is unreachable but the pure
pursuit is the one driving architecture forward. It needs
provocation and if this happened to be the current recession I am
welcoming it with open hands, with all the negative impact, until
the moment we are ready for the next incitement.
Bibliography:

1. http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3135892
2. http://archrecord.construction.com/news/economy/survivalgu
ide/0903strategies-1.asp
3. http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/art-vs-design
4. http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/michael-
cannell/cannell/do-bad-economies-produce-great-buildings
5. http://www.investorsprovident.com/europe/bulgaria/bulgaria-
property-market.html
6. In the Bulgarian newspaper “Monitor” on 27.7.2009
7. http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/01/11/m
arking_the_end_of_the_bilbao_decade/
8. http://www.hughpearman.com/2009/01.html
9. http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3135892
10. http://www.hughpearman.com/2009/01.html
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releases/200901/places-matter-report.aspx
12. http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=313589
2
13. http://blueverticalstudio.com/go/?p=21030
14. http://blueverticalstudio.com/go/?p=21030
15. http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/1751
16. In the Bulgarian newspaper "Trud" on 06.7.2009
17. http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=31224
95
18. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/mar/06/a
rchitecture-rogers-foster-recession
19. http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=313589
2
20. http://architecturaltechnologies.blogspot.com/2009/03/a
rchitecture-of-recession.html