On Design 21: What is mafia baroque architecture?

After Bulgaria’s first elections were held in 1990, the free market rushed in to fill the economic vacuum left by the fall of communism. On one side there arose a new class of oligarchs and on the other, against a backdrop of economic failure, the notorious organised crime sector of 1990s Bulgaria. These newly moneyed people, many of whom were involved or connected to the construction industry, needed somewhere to live, work and play. The havoc of building that followed threw up a chaotic architectural vernacular that some call “mafia baroque”.