Sense Hotel

Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza

Sense Hotel

Lazzarini Pickering Architetti

INTERIOR DESIGN
Architectural Group Tzonkov

COLLABORATORS
Barbara Fragale, Giuseppe Postet, Daniela Ogis, Antonio Cavallo, Andrea Di Laurenzio, Carlo Guerrieri, Jenny Hammer, Eva Christine Schenck, Francesca Wunderle

MANUFACTURERS
Lutron

PHOTOGRAPHS
Matteo Piazza

YEAR
2013

LOCATION
Sofia, Bulgaria

CATEGORY
Hotels, Renovation

Text description provided by architect.

This project for a hotel in Sofia revolves around the contemporary reconstruction of a historical building. The hotel is situated in Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard, one of the city’s most prestigious streets.

As with all of Lazzarini Pickering’s work, the project creates an attentive dialogue with the site, despite its innovative form.

Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza
Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza
Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza

The base, the only element finished in stone, ensures a continuous link with neighbouring buildings.

The new façade that sits atop this plinth is characterised by a glazed surface interrupted by a metal grid defining the pattern of windows in the guestrooms.

Fixed panes alternate with operable rectangular windows that provide fresh air, in alternative to the mechanical air conditioning system.

Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza
Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza
Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza

Formal experimentation comes with the creation of second internal façade. The configuration of this shifting surface changes in direct relationship to needs of the hotel’s guests.

It is composed of a series of adjustable opaque panels that can be used to modulate and screen relationship between interior and exterior.

In continuous movement, the panels are finished in a warm golden yellow, homage to the golden domes of Alexsander Nevsky Cathedral, whose image is reflected in the hotel’s transparent façade.

Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza
Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza

The final effect is that of a building with a consistently different appearance. Opening and closing the internal panels, reveals/conceals life inside the hotel and animates the opaque second façade. This effect is enhanced at night as guests turn on the lights in their rooms.

The upper storeys of the building are progressively carved out to give way for a lone steel structure that abandons any prismatic form as its transforms into a ziggurat. Here we find the suites, each with a private terrace, and the skybar.

Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza


Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza
Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza
Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza
Sense Hotel
© Matteo Piazza


Sense Hotel
Ground Floor Plan
Sense Hotel
Standard Floor