The big winners of Pirogov’s “Little Heroes” competition are already known. In an extremely short time, the competition for ideas for the interiors of the children’s ward at Pirogov Emergency Hospital, held by the City Academy and America for Bulgaria Foundation attracted 32 participants, representatives of seven Bulgarian and three foreign universities, who came up with a total of 22 projects. Big competition for the “Little Heroes”!
On April 27, the competition jury awarded the winners. The most exciting part of the event was the moment when the true little heroes chose their favorite project. The children from the Children’s Architecture Workshop were invited by City Academy to choose separately their favorite and they were absolutely unanimous in their choice of the winner, giving sound reasons to the adult jury.
Speaking at the event, Stephen Fillo, a member of the Board of Directors of America for Bulgaria Foundation said: “I am especially happy to have the opportunity to be here at this stage of America for Bulgaria Foundation’s initiative, Pirogov’s ‘Little Heroes’, because children and young people have been at the very heart of the Foundation since its founding. You can see that in this competition, which brings together young professionals and students in this socially important cause.
Mr. Fillo explained how the campaign touched him personally: “When my son was small – he’s now 50 – we had to spend a long time at the hospital. Back then, hospitals were frightening places, and that stress added to the stress of the illness. I am happy that today this may be changed.”
Professor Assen Baltov, Executive Director of Pirogov, gave an assurance that the major renovations at the hospital, which are being carried out with state funding, are progressing according to plan and the entire project is expected to be completed by September 15.
City Academy said: “For us, the ‘Little Heroes’ cause affects the most important part of our society – children and their health. That is why we support this noble initiative by America for Bulgaria Foundation. We are delighted that the young architects and participants at City Academy have come up with the most creative ideas about transforming the interiors of the ward to turn it into a friendlier place.”
All the projects will be displayed at a special exhibition at Sofia Event Center where the official award ceremony will be held on July 12. You’re welcome to come to see them. Meanwhile, here are the big winners of “Little Heroes”.
1. Topic “Heroes of the Seven Seas”
Winner: Kiril Kirilov (New Bulgaria University) and Snezhanka Radulova(Kingston University London)
In this category, a special award is given to the project by Tsvetan Tsekov and Nona Tsekova (both graduated from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in 2012 and currently have their own architectural office “Tsekov Architecture and Design”)
2. Topic: ‘Superheroes’
The winner is Architect Silvia Mitkova-Liseva (Pentaxron Ltd.)
3. Topic: ‘Animal heroes of fairy tales’
The award goes to the project by Violetka Slavova (Politecnico di Milano), Maria Stinova (UACEG) and Evgenia Voinova (National Art Academy)
4. Topic: ‘Fairytale characters’
The winner is the project by a 12th grade pupil at the Hristo Botev Construction, Architecture and Geodesy High School in Sofia, Emilia Gaidarova.
The members of the competition jury:
Prof. Dr. Assen Baltov, Executive Director of the Pirogov University Hospital;
Rossitza Raykova, Senior Nurse at the Children’s Chest Unit at Pirogov Hospital Pediatric Surgery Clinic;
Architect Lyudmil Leonidov, author of the reconstruction project for the Pediatrics section of Pirogov and manager of FAR-90 Ltd.;
Lee Skolnick, architect LHSA+DP, developed the concept of the “Little Heroes”.;
Architect Nikolay Traykov, Project Manager, America for Bulgaria Foundation;
Eng. Gena Sabeva, President, Association of Interior Designers in Bulgaria (AIDB);
Kamen Krastev, Deputy Manager, Gradut Media Group;
Archictect Nikolay Davidkov, founder, Diagonali Architectural studio;
The Children’s Architectural Workshop;
Theodoros Mouratidis, IKEA manager for Bulgaria;
Assoc. Prof. Banko Bankov, lecturer at NBU Department of Design and Architecture.
Detailed information on each of them can be found HERE.
Architect Lee Skolnick and the team at LHSA + DP, New York, helped develop the original idea for the Little Heroes Project at Pirogov. Lee contributed his concept drawings free of charge. The next phase of the project will be carried out by Bulgarian teams of architects, designers, artists and contractors.
You can see all the projects that participated in the contest HERE. It’s well worth a look because they are wonderful.
