Architect Hristo Peev is among the most renowned architects in Plovdiv, famous as being a researcher of the 19th century architecture in the city. His architectural projects are extremely modern in style, being free of ornamentation, focusing on functionality and using all sorts of modernist ideas, like the usable flat roof.
He was born in the seaside town of Pomorie, but got his high-school education in Plovdiv. In 1911 he went to Peterburg, Russia, but was forced to stop twice - first to take part in the First Balkan War, and then as taken hostage by the Russian government while Russia was at war with Bulgaria after 1915. Afterwards Peev returned to Bulgaria without a diploma, but managed to graduate between 1922 and 1923 in the Technical Higher School in Dresden.
Between 1924 and 1944 he managed to execute more than 150 projects in and around Plovdiv. After 1930 his style is extremely modernist. After 1944 his style changes due to the political situation and the forced ideas for architectural style of the Stalinist baroque in Communist Bulgaria.
Hristo Peev died in 1956.
