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NEW
COLORS FOR THE OLD SCHOOL Nadya Stamatova and Katya Angelova |
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This
project is a part of the second stage of the �Beautiful
Bulgaria project� particularly of the �Beautiful Varna
project� financed by The World Bank. Eight public buildings
in Varna were listed for reconstruction of their facades:
the Archaeological museum, the Muppet Theater and Museum,
the Center of Contemporary Art, the Library for Middle
Schools, and four schools. One of the latter is the subject
of our work and present report. The school is located
at bus stop �Pochivka� on the highway from Varna to the
vacation resorts �St. St. Constantine and Helene� and
�Golden Sands�. The reconstruction work will be completed
in August 2000 year. The building was designed in 1967. It consist of 3 blocks:
south-eastern that contains the classrooms; north-eastern
where the gymnasium is situated; and the south-western
where the acting hall is. The three blocks are connected
with two passages and the whole building is U-shaped.
Its opened side is planned for outside sport activities.
The main entrance, which is on the south-eastern side,
faces the sea. Construction work continued until the second
half of the 70-s. The connection to the acting hall was
built later, thus leveling its facade with the one of
the classrooms block. Before starting the design work for the project we had
a meeting with the schools� headmasters and psychologist,
and after that made an inquiry (color.xls,
70KB) in both schools for determining the color and
style preferences of the students. The inquiry was made
in two parts: a detailed one and a summary. The answers
did not equal the number of the participating students
because many of them made several suggestions, and others
did not have an opinion. Each mentioning of a certain
color was written as a single option. Aesthetic views
change noticeably with the age of the students. An option
offered by us was accepted by the younger students and
denied by the middle and upper level students. Therefore,
our decision was based on the inquiry�s summarized results.
J-Preparatory Class gave the most interesting answers,
as a group and as a individuals. Some of the students
have non-standard aesthetic views, as for example G. Toshev.
In addition to the color painting of the school, another
matter of discussion with the headmasters� staff was the
eventual preservation of the �Revelation Wall�. The options
were contradictory. In any case, we as project designers
decided to preserve this wall as a self-expression through
graffiti and we offer to use the entire end wall to its
full height. The rest of the walls where graffiti are
usually spread, we intend to cover with anti-graffiti
layer, thanks to which they can be wiped out with a wet
sponge. The color scheme of the building is calculated mathematically.
The volume is divided into surfaces. The walls are white,
while the pilasters and the coves (the window recessions)
are in two colors: A and B. We have tried to interpret
the colors according to the summarized results of the
inquiry. The biggest percent of the students, 28%, preferred
the blue color and 14% the yellow color (incl. the ocher
color by 3%). Horizontal volume tric elements, including
also parts that project out of the system, are painted
with 1/2A+1/2B, i.e. in this case with green, which had
13% of the votes and was placed third (excluding the white
achromatic color). The same idea could also be implemented
in a blue-purple-red scale, however as it is seen from
the inquiry�s results, it is not the preferred one (12%
are for the red and purple against 27% for the yellow
and green). The long facades of the classroom block are split into
3 sections painted in three different colors in order
to reach an optical shortening of the facades. The end
walls are painted in blue and yellow in accordance with
the idea that the warm geographic side should be in a
cold color, and the cold side-in a warm color. The window
recessions are painted in three colors: the concaves -in
blue and yellow, the lintel and the sill-in the moderate
green color. This, as well as the painting of the pilasters
in two colors, adds to an unexpected dynamic effect when
looking at the building from different angles. In this
way it changes together with the viewpoint. Turning to
the left, we see the blue stripes of the pilasters and
the coves on a large yellow background. Looking to the
right we see yellow stripes on a blue background. We have included in our project the sign boards indicating
the particular languages included in the school�s program,
as well as its banners, both according to the inquiry�s
results. We offer the sign boards with the names of the
high schools to be replaced with permanent inscriptions
on both fronts of a metal roof above the main entrance,
which are missing so far. The paints that we have available are Bulgarian and produced
by Orgachim-Rousse. The yellow, the green and the blue
colors are water-based facade paints numbers, 2204, 3204,
and 2703, corresponding to 2030-Y30R (20% black, 50% white,
30% color, out of which 70% yellow and 30% red), 2020-G10Y
(20% black, 60% white, 20% color, out of which 90% green
and 10% yellow), 2030-R90B(20% black, 50% white, 50% color,
out of which 10% black and 90% blue) of NCS system, related
to ISO 9002 standard. |
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