This Apartment Building’s Unusual Shape Was Influenced By What Came Before It

An elevated view of a modern apartment building in Sofia, Bulgaria, featuring light-colored brick walls, rounded corners, recessed balconies, and a dark metal roof surrounded by historic neighborhood buildings.

In Sofia, Bulgaria, architecture studio NiMa Design has completed Oborishte 26, a modern apartment building with an unusual exterior of curved pale brick walls. Located in one of the city’s historic neighborhoods, the building’s rounded corners have a connection to the architecture that surrounds it, while the design of its exterior also influences the spaces inside.

A modern brick apartment building on a street corner in Sofia, featuring curved exterior walls, tall windows, recessed balconies, and mature trees along the sidewalk.

Two Different Architectural Histories Influence the Design

The Oborishte neighborhood contains buildings from different periods of Sofia’s history, including older structures with rounded street corners. NiMa Design incorporated this familiar architectural detail into the new building, using curved brick walls that repeat across several floors.

The rounded corner of a contemporary apartment building features pale brick walls, tall windows, dark horizontal detailing, and recessed balconies across multiple floors.

An aerial view of a contemporary apartment building surrounded by traditional red-tiled rooftops in Sofia. The modern design includes a curved metal roof, light-colored brick walls, and upper-level terraces.

The site also has its own architectural history. Before construction began, it was occupied by a Socialist-era Brutalist building that was demolished. The architects drew inspiration from its solid, sculptural appearance, combining that influence with the rounded corners found elsewhere in the neighborhood.

A modern brick apartment building photographed in warm evening light, showing its rounded street corner, recessed windows, and repeating curved walls extending along the exterior.

Curved Brick Walls Give the Exterior Its Unusual Appearance

The building’s pale brick exterior is made up of alternating straight and curved sections that extend outward or sit farther back. This arrangement breaks up the large building into smaller-looking sections, with dark horizontal lines separating the different floors.

The pale brick exterior of a contemporary apartment building features a repeating pattern of rounded walls, recessed balconies, dark horizontal lines, and large windows.

A street-level perspective of a modern apartment building highlights its long brick façade, curved wall sections, recessed balconies, and slim dark metal railings.

The depth of the brick walls also changes how the building looks throughout the day. Sunlight catches the rounded surfaces while the recessed windows and balconies remain in shadow, emphasizing the curves and giving the exterior a different appearance depending on the viewing angle.

A close-up architectural photograph looking upward at curved brick walls, recessed windows, and dark balcony railings, with warm interior lighting visible through the glass.

A low-angle view of a contemporary brick façade shows how alternating straight and rounded walls create depth around balconies and windows, with perforated brick screens at street level.

Balconies Are Built Into the Brick Exterior

The curves aren’t limited to the building’s street corners. They also appear alongside windows and balconies, where the brick walls extend around recessed outdoor spaces.

A detailed view of a modern apartment building's light-colored brick exterior, where curved walls, dark horizontal bands, and recessed balconies create a repeating geometric pattern.

Instead of having rows of balconies extending beyond the exterior, many of the terraces sit within the building’s overall shape. The surrounding brick walls help provide privacy from the street and neighboring apartments, while the openings allow daylight into the living spaces and offer views of the neighborhood.

An elevated view of a contemporary apartment building reveals its long brick façade, upper-floor terraces, large windows, and distinctive curved metal roof surrounded by trees.

The street-facing exterior of a modern apartment building features pale brick walls with rounded edges, recessed balconies, large windows, and patterned brickwork along the ground floor.

The Exterior Walls Also Make More Room Inside

One of the building’s less obvious features is its structural design. The load-bearing structure is concentrated along the exterior, reducing the need for columns inside the apartments.

This allows for larger, uninterrupted floor areas that can be arranged in different ways. Without a conventional grid of interior columns restricting the layout, the apartments have greater flexibility in how their living spaces are organized.

A contemporary apartment building with a light-colored brick exterior features alternating curved and rectangular wall sections, recessed balconies, and large windows above a brick boundary wall.

The apartments also have high ceilings, large windows, and access to recessed terraces, creating open, loft-like living spaces. Two underground levels provide parking for residents.

An aerial view of a modern apartment building in Sofia shows its curved metal roof, rooftop greenery, brick exterior, and terraces, with red-tiled neighborhood rooftops and mountains in the distance.

The rounded corners may be the building’s most recognizable feature, but their importance goes beyond appearance. They link the design to Sofia’s architectural past, while the arrangement of the exterior walls helps shape both the outdoor spaces and the apartments behind them.

A modern brick apartment building features a rounded street corner with stacked curved walls, tall windows, recessed balconies, and dark horizontal detailing above the sidewalk.

Photography: Assen Emilov | Architecture Studio: NiMa Design | Lead Architect & Founder: Nikolai Mario Nikolov | Project Architects: Kristiyan Topchiev, Slavcho Filipov, Georgi Beshirov, Stefan Valkanov | Structural Engineering: Extreme Engineering | MEP Engineering: Odit Engineering | General Contractor: Kalistratov Group