Arch. Yulian Piperov: Overdevelopment of residential complexes decreases their cost.

Arch Piperov is the founder of Studiopiperov, an architectural company dealing with town planning and interior design. The portfolio of the studio is varied with projects for both local and foreign clients. One of the company’s largest projects is the luxury residential complex Simeonovo River Park in Sofia.

Premium class habitations and projects have recently become quite popular in Bulgaria. In fact, they follow a ready-made model, which was greatly improved in the 1950s and 1960s in the USA. Cities are becoming places where people only go to work.
Presently, the premium class locations in Sofia are Pancharevo, Boyana, the region under the lift in Simeonovo, the peripheral areas of Vitosha, Bankya. To build a large, luxury complex you need enough space and these regions have that.
Some of the ingredients that characterize successful projects are low level development density, lots of greenery, enough recreational and entertainment places, kindergartens, shops, restaurants. If there are small blocks of flats, this doesn’t mean that the complex is not luxury. It’s all a matter of good mix. Apartments have to be spacious - maisonnette- like with huge terraces. It goes without saying that the participation of a certain luxury chain of restaurants, shops, supermarkets brings additional value to the project. The security and safety of inhabitants is vital too as well as comfort and clear allocation of spaces but the latter usually applies only to complexes with suitable sizes.
Premium class projects sometimes have overdevelopment issues or too many units with similar designs. This mostly results from the fact that when starting a project investors have to take care of infrastructure as well. To have more revenues they construct greater quantity of residential units. There are still very few people, who realize that the denser a project is, the cheaper it becomes. Consequently, fewer clients would be attracted. Developers have to think about the target customers that require quality.