Three mountain-inspired structures with colourful patterned surfaces intersect the glass volume of the not too long ago opened Muzeiko children’s museum, in the Bulgarian capital Sofia .
Designed by New York company LHSA+DP, the Muzeiko science centre is billed as the “1st children’s museum to be built in publish-Soviet Eastern Europe”.
It was commissioned by the America for Bulgaria Basis, a charity set up to foster hyperlinks between the two countries.
The three faceted structures all overlap the rectilinear type of the museum’s main creating.
Their forms had been designed to pay homage to Romania’s 14 mountain ranges, whilst the colours and patterns reference the textures and patterns of the nation’s traditional craft.
The green portion is modelled on textiles and embroidery, the red section takes its cues from glazed ceramics and the brown section references traditional wood carving.
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“The museum’s architectural theme, ‘Little Mountains’, is an allusion to Bulgaria’s mountainous topography,” said LHSA+DP.
“The structure’s glass volume is interrupted by 3 sculptural types, or mountains, each referencing via its colour scheme and texture indigenous craft traditions in the nation.”
While these bulbous elements of the creating are opaque, the straight walls of the developing are glazed to offer views into the galleries. Two of these are located above ground, while the third is below.
“The museum utilises huge locations of glass to reveal the interior, and generate a feeling of openness and transparency about the activity within, in contrast with most Bulgarian museums that appear imposing and monumental,” explained the architects.
Exhibits are organised as a “journey moving by means of time and area” beginning with the previous on the lowest degree, the existing on the ground floor and the potential on the top floor.
A cave-like portion in the basement hosts archaeology, geology and paleontology exhibits, although the ground level presents contemporary environmental pieces, and technology and area exploration displays are located on the initial floor.
The three,250-square-metre facility, which attained an vitality efficiency LEED rating of gold, features a green roof with a climbing wall, observation point and an amphitheater. At ground degree, an outdoor “science playground” includes a wind turbine and a pond.
Earlier this month a children’s museum opened in the base of David Adjaye’s Sugar Hill housing task in Harlem, New York, while Kada Wittfeld Architektur not too long ago created a museum devoted to the fairytales of the Brothers Grimm for the German city of Kassel.
Photography is by Roland Halbe.
Project credits:
Design principal: Lee H Skolnick
Undertaking architect: Larry Sassi
Project manager: Scott Briggs
Associate architect: A&A Architects
Structural engineer: Strukto, BIPAK
MEP engineer: Termoklima, Dikras
Landscape architect: Studio Gurkov
Lighting: Available Light, Nikan Bulgaria
Interior designer: LHSA+DP
Contractor: Bigla III
Leed advisor: Triple Green Building Group
Acoustic layout: Jaffe Holden
Venture crew: Lee H Skolnick, Paul S Alter, Scott Briggs, Larry Sassi, Ted Klingensmith, Jo Ann Secor, Christina Ferwerda, Yun Chu Chou, Curt Meissner, Jethro Rebollar, Tugce Zaloglu, Christina Lyons, Dan Ownbey, Alyssa Liegel, Daphne Smith, Paul Orselli
Client: America for Bulgaria Basis
Internet site prepare 
Basement level plan 
Ground floor program 
Initial floor program
