Sofia Architect Planning Modern Houses for the Roma

Business | October 7, 2006, Saturday // 00:00

Sofia may be building an ultra-modern neighbourhood for the Roma from the capital city's illegal ghettoes, reports say.

The city's chief architect Petar Dikov has already nodded the project and is about to submit it for the consideration of mayor Boyko Borisov and the Municipal Council.

The 120-house neighbourhood will have its own church, kindergarten and park, spreading over 10 hectares of municipal and private land near the capital's Fakulteto District, Trud daily reports.

All the Roma houses would be massive and they would house up to 1,000 people in total, Lyudmil Leonidov, the architect who came up with the project has said.

Each house will spread on about 128 square meters and is intended for a family of six. They will cost about BGN 66,000 and will be equipped with floor heating and laundry rooms. There will also be several toilets, living rooms and bedrooms.

Each four houses will share an inner courtyard where the families can hold their famous noisy celebrations without disturbing anyone.

The issue of who will be paying for the houses and who will actually own them is still unclear, but Dikov claims that this is the best project for a solution to the illegal ghettoes problem that he has seen so far.

There are about 1400,000 Roma people living in Sofia right now, Dikov says, pointing out that they have been just 18,000 in 2001.

If the municipality nods the project, building could start before the end of the year, the architect added. He said that should this scheme prove useful, it will be introduced in other Bulgarian cities.

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