SOM Reveals Competition-Winning Development in Bulgaria

As part of a keynote lecture today at BalREc, Bulgaria's annual investment and real estate market conference, Partner Thomas Behr unveiled SOM's competition-winning plan for a new mixed-use development in Bulgaria's capital city, Sofia.

Called Sofia Square, the 345,000-square-meter development takes cues from Sofia's surrounding natural landscape to create new vibrant public space, retail, and residential buildings, centered around the reinvention of a historic industrial building designed by Gustave Eiffel.

SOM was selected following an international competition, organized by GK Bulgaria, to envision a characterful new future for a brownfield site in the west of the city. Designed to extend Sofia's bustling retail boulevards, the project comprises more than 269,000 square meters of residential space, 80,000 square meters of public realm, and 50,000 square meters of retail space set among immersive waterscapes and urban greenery.

The adaptive reuse of a disused industrial building-formerly a car factory-designed by the French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel in 1907 into a multipurpose commercial building with restaurants, food markets, and shops forms the development's central civic landmark. With all visible architectural elements sensitively preserved, the building will be connected to an additional level to the lower ground to create a dramatic double-height event space. Outside, an amphitheater and central water feature will host cultural activations and a regular program of public events, exhibitions, and festivals, celebrating the city's rich heritage.