[GJM] [From: Robert Searle] Architecture: Bulgarian eco town 'the biggest mistake of Norman Foster's career', say protesters

[robert searle]

Dear All,
         I am not sure whether I brought this subject before or not. I do not think so. It is to with the architect Lord Foster, and his Bulagrian Eco Town Project in Bulgaria.

Anyway, I used to know Primo Tamburini who also knew Foster quite well. Infact, his son Adam Taburini (another architect of note, and ofcourse, an entrepreneur)used to work for him at the London Office. Primo revealed some intersting insights into Foster who though a brilliant, and hugely successful architect could be "eccentric" at times. 

R.Searle


--- On Thu, 17/7/08, guardian.co.uk <noreply at guardian.co.uk> wrote:

> From: guardian.co.uk <noreply at guardian.co.uk>
> Subject: [From: Robert Searle] Architecture: Bulgarian eco town 'the biggest mistake of Norman Foster's career', say protesters
> To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk
> Date: Thursday, 17 July, 2008, 9:54 AM
> Robert Searle spotted this on the guardian.co.uk site and
> thought you should see it.
> 
> To see this story with its related links on the
> guardian.co.uk site, go to
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/14/greenbuilding.climatechange
> 
> Architecture: Bulgarian eco town 'the biggest mistake
> of Norman Foster's career', say protesters
> &#183; 'Green' resort threatens last area of
> unspoilt coast 
> &#183; Design is sympathetic to habitats, architect
> says
> Kate Connolly in Karadere beach
> Monday July 14 2008
> The Guardian
> 
> 
> An hour-long stroll through an oak forest, past clusters of
> blackberries, St John's wort, olive trees and
> butterflies, ends with the rewarding sight of soft, white
> sands and gently breaking waves.
> 
> On Karadere beach, in north-east Bulgaria, a smattering of
> families have set up camp for the summer, as they have done
> for years. But this year the happy-go-lucky mood has been
> punctured by fears that the small corner of paradise is
> under imminent threat by Bulgaria's first
> carbon-neutral resort.
> 
> Having been considered ripe for development since the
> collapse of communism 19 years ago, the area is set to be
> turned into a luxury &euro;1bn (&pound;780m)
> settlement. Dubbed the Black Sea Gardens, it will include
> five new hill towns, artificial lakes, a marina and an
> extensive leisure area and will be self-sustaining, thanks
> to biomass power and construction from local, natural
> resources, say the developers.
> 
> But the 540-acre (219-hectare) development, spearheaded by
> the British architect Sir Norman Foster, has enraged
> Bulgaria's growing band of ecologists. 
> 
> They say it will destroy the Black Sea coast's last
> remaining virgin stretches of beach and will have a
> devastating effect on the rich biodiversity of an area
> which has environmental protection status under the
> EU's Natura 2000 programme, which aims to protect
> endangered species and habitats.
> 
> But the Bulgarian government's failure to enact
> regulations outlawing extensive developments in such areas
> has allowed coastal constructions to go ahead almost
> unhindered. Now there is hardly a stretch of the
> country's 220-mile coastline untouched by overdeveloped
> resorts. Locals are often restricted from accessing beaches
> whose entrances are flanked by security guards.
> 
> Construction of the Black Sea Gardens project, which Foster
> and Partner's website describes as "a series of
> car-free hill towns in an unspoilt setting of oak forests,
> meadows and river gorges", is due to start next year.
> Under the plans, 15,000 inhabitants of Sky Village,
> Wilderness Village, Meadow Village, Cape Village and Sea
> Village will be encouraged to leave their cars outside the
> settlements and go by foot, or use pools of electric cars
> and shuttle buses instead.
> 
> Sky is the first village due to be built, with the backing
> of a British-Bulgarian investment group. US, Russian and
> Saudi Arabian investors have expressed an interest in the
> other hill towns, according to the Bulgarian co-architects,
> Projects Ltd, which describes the resort as having something
> for every holidaymaker - "from sportish Club Med types
> to more contemplative, sleepy types". 
> 
> Foster and Partners did not provide anyone to talk to the
> Guardian, but in a press release it stressed that the
> resort is designed to blend in with its environment.
> "The residential clusters are tightly packed and
> integrated into the contours of the landscape, preserving
> the majority of its site as virgin terrain," it read.
> 
> Detractors say while the plans might be of a much higher
> standard than the depressing array of substandard
> constructions hugging the Black Sea, the sheer scale of the
> resort will do lasting damage to the natural habitat. The
> settlements will eat into untouched oak forests, and the
> invasion of thousands of people and new roads will disturb
> one of Europe's major migratory routes for millions of
> birds, known as via pontica, they say.
> 
> "I ask myself whether Norman Foster really knows what
> he's getting himself in to," said Todor
> Karastoyanov, a musician and protester against the project
> who frequents the beach and married his wife, Boriana,
> there last summer. 
> 
> "We want to try to stop him from making the biggest
> mistake of his career by building here, because it's
> immoral and he might not know that." 
> 
> Biliana Voutchkova, a concert violinist holidaying on
> Karadere beach with her family, as she has done since her
> childhood, said: "This has been a magnet for those
> wishing to spend time away from civilisation and to enjoy
> nature, but soon it will be lost forever and we'll only
> realise the consequences once it's too late."
> Dimiter Georgiev, an ornithologist from nearby Varna, said
> the habitats of numerous species would be "directly
> disturbed and destroyed by this construction",
> including those of otters, butterflies, woodpeckers, honey
> buzzards, lesser spotted eagles and red-backed shrikes.
> "We know from experience that these species don't
> move elsewhere, they just disappear," he said, citing
> the demise of several species of lark, shrike and bunting
> in areas given over to resort developments. 
> 
> "We're not against mass tourism but it should be
> planned in a proper way, with areas set aside for wildlife
> to breed. But the problem is so much of the coastal areas
> have been developed, there's now hardly any space left,
> which means the ecosystem's resilience is greatly
> weakened, so any new site does not have the moral right to
> call itself 'eco'."
> 
> Foster has yet to visit the site, but he has been involved
> in discussions between the British and Bulgarian teams,
> according to Georgi Stanishev, the director of Projects
> Ltd. Stanishev, brother of Bulgaria's prime minister
> Sergei Stanishev, insisted that Black Sea Gardens was
> environmentally ethical and was breaking no laws.
> 
> "What we as the Bulgarian team of architects and
> Foster and Partners are doing is absolutely adequate to the
> legislation and the laws of this country," he said,
> adding that the construction would be sympathetic to its
> surroundings. 
> 
> The project was conceived as an antidote to the
> over-development along the rest of the Black Sea coastline,
> he said.
> 
> Opponents say they will not let the project go ahead
> without a fight. 
> 
> "We're planning to hold protests in Sofia, as well
> as concerts,' said Nadezhda Miksimova, of the campaign
> group For the Nature. "And we will set up a protest
> camp on the beach itself."
> 
> Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
> 
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