belo
full ash trays and cardgame scoresheets in the morning light. . . . . . . .
bathrooms and showers
separate, mixed, overlapping, transformed. . . . . . . .
vhod fall
"Whose idea was it to plant all these stupid trees?!"
traces
"to live is to leave traces" - Walter Benjamin
privacy of condensation
. . . . . . . .
infill
"to be warm for me"
a clean bulgaria
neighbors with different views.
meet oscar
"The pipes run through, she'll be fine!"
chushki smoke
Smells.
We respond strongly to them.
In the panelka, they are readily available.
spaces for gathering
When apartments are designed by minimums, and guests at home are traditionally a big ordeal, neighbors create their gathering spaces outside.. . . . . . . .
summer fading
"There is no such insulation on these panels."
-tap - tap-
"You have to insulate yourself!"
loveit
small businesses in what used to be the trash chute of the vhods of the blocks were a strategic move even before the fall of communism.
By putting small businesses in these spaces the vhod collects rent.
The rent helps pay for the upkeep of the common spaces.
connections
welding diagrams.
“This is the main problem with panels today, we just don’t know how those welds were done, and what they look like now.”. . . . . . . .
expiration dates
"no one wants to talk about it, but allllll those buildings, where alllll those people live, they're going to expire."
kafe nadezhda – cafe hope
and a pretty coin eating coffee machine.. . . . . . . .
original switches
and the shell of boiler controls.. . . . . . . .
echos
"All week I've been dreaming of a safari!"
seasons
'A box in the world theater' - Walter Benjamin
If you need me, I'll be here, watching the world theater unfold.
mailboxes
"they probably don't give them to renters...."
context
panelkite in their natural habitat.
with stratification as clear as this, it really seems as though the panelkite are exactly where they are are supposed to be....
ikoni and a switch
I hear about how, the night before Easter, they would show american movies in the theaters, in attempts to deter people from the midnight candle tradition at the churches. One evil for another they figured.
bisetka reflections
the boundaries of privacy in the space of facebook became a whole lot more confusing.
ventilation and tichenie
Parts were stolen or things weren't installed right...
Tichenie in all of it's glory.
late night scupper
I snapped one as he sat looking up from the bench.
clear
so I cleaned my windows.....
and then I cleaned the second layer of windows that glasses in the entire height of the balcony.
water heaters
It squeals as it pulls water into the tubes, heating the liquid, filling its big belly.
late night haircut
"In 1991 we turned the storage room into a hair salon. We live upstairs. There is a number on the door, whenever anyone wants, they call, and we come cut."
bedroom and rakia
"She's old. She doesn't need these rooms. She sleeps in the kitchen, so we keep the rakiya in the bedroom."
vhod
bloc 71 vhod A
and the shoe cobbler.
wayfinding
"Those people, the people that have lived in the villages all their lives, they don't understand things like this..."
services
car parts among panel parts
floral tiles and a sprouting sink
"most people cant afford to do it all at once. So they do the top, then the bottom, or they do the bottom then the top.
spilling balconies
"Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,"
business and home
"People who don't like to leave Trakiya if they don't have to. Our business has been much better here than it probably ever would have been in the center"
for the mice
"She went there to be an architect, and we live here....
where the mice run up and down our pipes."
catching busses
"We didn't have sidewalks or grass, but we had big streets and lots of busses....."