Silver A' Design Award Winner 2023
Alexander Yonchev's architectural language in Villa Bianca Private House employs white as both material reality and profound symbol, invoking cultural associations of purity, clarity, and transcendence that echo through Mediterranean building traditions from ancient temple precincts to modernist villas. The geometric vocabulary speaks through archetypal forms where the square and rectangle embody stability, rationality, and human ordering of space, while the careful proportional relationships suggest harmonic principles connecting built form to mathematical ideals pursued since classical antiquity. The interplay between solid mass and carved void creates a dialogue between presence and absence, shelter and openness, that may reference threshold symbolism central to domestic architecture across cultures, marking the transition from public realm to private sanctuary. Natural elements integrated into the composition carry additional resonance where the specimen tree, shaped with evident care, suggests the paradise garden tradition where cultivated nature represents idealized nature, a place of contemplation and spiritual renewal. Shadow patterns cast by foliage onto architectural surfaces create a temporal dimension, marking the passage of hours and seasons, potentially evoking meditation on permanence and change, the eternal and ephemeral. The cylindrical furniture forms introduce curvilinear geometry that softens the orthogonal dominance, perhaps suggesting human presence and domestic comfort within the architectural rigor. White aggregate ground covering extends the chromatic unity while introducing natural material texture that grounds the composition in earthly substance. The elevated lettering identifies while maintaining the abstraction of the overall composition, integrating signage as architectural element rather than applied decoration.
The project consists of partial reconstruction and complete visual transformation of an existing house built in pseudo-traditional style. The main idea has been to achieve the exactly opposite effect: to have a contrasting, memorable, minimalistic and contemporary architecture. The biggest challenge of the project has been to reduce the cluster of geometries and to emphasize the constructive principle of the building by making some spatial and organizational improvements of the interior.