ARCHITECTS from Bulgaria

Top 3

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Bulgarian Architects of all time. This list of famous Bulgarian Architects is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis (1913 - 1975)

With an HPI of 49.52, Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis is the most famous Bulgarian Architect.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages on wikipedia.

Constantinos A. Doxiadis (14 May 1913 – 28 June 1975), often cited as C. A. Doxiadis, was a Greek architect and urban planner. During the 1960s, he was the lead architect and planner of Islamabad, which was to serve as the new capital city of Pakistan. He was later known as the father of ekistics, which concerns the multi-aspect science of human settlements.

2. Kolyu Ficheto (1800 - 1881)

With an HPI of 45.93, Kolyu Ficheto is the 2nd most famous Bulgarian Architect.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Nikola Fichev (Bulgarian: Никола Фичев; 1800 in Direnova, Ottoman Empire – 1881 in Veliko Tarnovo, Principality of Bulgaria), commonly known as Kolyo Ficheto (Bulgarian: Колю Фичето) or with his Turkish honorific Usta (Master) Kolyo Ficheto, was a Bulgarian National Revival architect, builder and sculptor born in Dryanovo (then called Direnova) in 1800. Left an orphan without a father at the age of three, Kolyu Ficheto was taught craftsmanship by the masterhands in the Trevne town (today Tryavna) since he was ten. He learned stonecutting in the town of Görice (today Korçë in Albania) when he was 17, and then mastered the construction of churches, bell towers and bridges from the craftsmen in Bratsigovo. Kolyu Ficheto became a journeyman at the age of 23 and was fully recognized as a master craftsman by the whole builders' guild at 36. Aside from his native language Bulgarian, he spoke fluent Turkish and good Greek and Romanian, but was illiterate, unable to read and write. Kolyu Ficheto is known for having lain under one of his own bridges to guarantee its safety with his life. Fichev died in Veliko Tarnovo, where he was buried, in 1881. Some of his notable works include the Byala Bridge (Беленски мост, Belenski most) over the Yantra River close to Byala (1865-1867), the Covered Bridge in Lovech over the Osam (1872-1874), churches in his native town, as well as in Svishtov (Church of the Holy Trinity, 1867) and Veliko Tarnovo (1844), where he also designed a number of houses and public buildings.

3. Sunay Erdem (b. 1971)

With an HPI of 34.08, Sunay Erdem is the 3rd most famous Bulgarian Architect.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Sunay Erdem (born 17 March 1971) is a Turkish landscape architect (by degree) and self-taught architect. He is one of Turkey's most prolific and best Landscape architects of his generation. Sunay Erdem founded Erdem Architects with his brother, Günay Erdem, in 1998. Sunay Erdem designed many urban design projects in more than 40 different countries. Erdem has been using the free-hand sketching method since 1992 and he has more than 700 free-hand perspectives. His water colored sketch won the first prize in the 2013 Sketch Showdown Competition, Mixed Media which was organized by Philadelphia Center for Architecture. He won Turkish National Architecture Award in the category Presentation of Ideas (2010). Sunay Erdem also won the Turkish National Landscape Architecture Awards in 2009, 2010 and 2013 which were given by the Chamber of Landscape Architects in Turkey. One of the important projects developed by Sunay Erdem is the wall project for the US-Mexico border.