On Wednesday, 16 September, instead of meeting in a boardroom and a formal corporate setting, we welcomed our partners from Henning Larsen — a leading Danish architecture studio with an international practice — and MurrayTwohig — international strategic consultants — outdoors, in a magical “Green Place” where the noise and rush of everyday life seem to fade away.
“The Green Place” is on Filip Kutev Street, in the gardens of Sofia University’s Faculty of Biology. We discovered this place — and decided to share it with some of our most important guests.
So, instead of sitting around a table with presentations, we found ourselves among the garden beds. Together — Bulgarians, Danish, French, English, Irish and Germans — we picked tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and herbs, all grown without chemicals, with care, love and plenty of Bulgarian sunshine.
We made Shopska salad, with tomatoes that smelled of summer and herbs picked only minutes before.
If you have ever wondered how people with different perspectives find common ground, the answer may be simpler than it seems: roll up your sleeves, take a chopping board, a knife and some fresh vegetables — and share the desire to make something together. We talked, laughed, got to know one another and created something with our own hands.
Then we sat down together at a shared table surrounded by greenery, to enjoy good food, conversation and a beautiful afternoon under the September sun.
Ideas for the project began to emerge naturally — between bites, stories and conversations. More freely, more spontaneously and more humanly than they ever could in a meeting room.
And then something happened that no one had planned. The energy from the garden followed us to the table, and the afternoon gradually turned into one of the liveliest and most productive project conversations we have had so far. One idea built on another before the first was even finished. There were debates, laughter, sketches and new questions.
No one was looking at the clock.
We allowed ourselves to dream boldly. And, little by little, we all began to see the same picture.
But what each of us took away at the end of the day was something more than ideas.
It was the feeling of sitting at the same table with people we trust.
And trust is the one material without which no great project can be built.
This was not simply a lunch. Nor was it simply a workshop.
It was a true garden-to-table experience — surrounded by nature, good company and genuine partnership.
And perhaps the most important part was something else.
For a few hours, we experienced exactly what we hope one day to create in the future “Filip Kutev” neighbourhood.
A place for chance encounters. For sharing a table. For nature in the city. For conversations no one has planned. For ideas that emerge simply because people feel good being together.
A green, open and human neighbourhood does not begin with buildings.
It begins with the way people meet, share and begin to trust one another.
On Wednesday, we experienced it for ourselves — before we had even built it.
Partnership, like a garden, grows from the ground up.
And dreams — from a shared table. ????
