SENSE HOTEL SOFIA

Sense Hotel Sofia is the first Bulgarian member of Design Hotels. Situated in the very heart of the city, the hotel is facing the central Tzar Osvoboditel Boulevard, right next to the Parliament, with a breath-taking view of the St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral to the North and Vitosha Mountain to the South.

The project began in yearly 2009 as a partnership between Lazzarini Pickering Architetti – designers from Rome, Italy and Architectural Group Tzonkov both entities gathered together by BLVD Ltd. as owner of the project. Construction began in the spring of 2009 and finished the beginning of 2013.

The building is accessible only from the Tzar Osvoboditel Boulevard and consists of ten -ground and 3 underground floors. The hotel rooms and suites are 71 in total, located on 8 floors, and the lobby level includes reception area, lobby bar, and restaurant.  There are 2 conference rooms situated on the mezzanine floor with annexes, and on the top floor is located the rooftop bar with magnificent 360-view over the entire city. On the first underground floor there is a Spa center, offering a swimming pool,  sauna, steam bath, fitness center, and massage rooms. On the second and third underground floors are located the parking lots, serviced by a car-lift. Vertical communication is provided through the main staircase, 2 guest elevators, passing through all floors, and an employee and 2 kitchen elevators.

The architectural project for the hotel creates a dynamic facade that reflects the inner city nature of the site. On the street, the manipulated grid of the facades becomes three-dimensional creating pergolas on the top three levels of the building and at ground level in the porte cochere.

An innovative framing detail developed by Lazzarini Pickering Architetti allows for fresh air ventilation by opening the opaque frame and not the window as normally occurs.

A system of pivoting panels behind the facade screens off the rooms and changes continuously as the life in the room and hotel modify during the day and night, creating continuously dynamic configurations.

The brass panels homage the gold domes of the St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral, creating an urban dialectic.

The space design created by Architectural Group Tzonkov communicates a sense of cleanliness and comfort due to predominant use of natural materials –walls and floors with polished glossed stone, massive oak parquet flooring, wooden wall paneling, and as a completing material a snow-white Corian is used.

The lighting installation mounted through two levels welcomes the guest at the main entrance in the lobby – 152 amorphоus forms, floating in elliptical space with dark textile sides, completely reflects and breaks the surrounding, mirroring itself multiple times in the horizontal surface, creating a sense of timelessness and space continuum.