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"VARNA SPAGHETTI ENGINEERING" STARTS! THE TASK: FLAT ROOF STRUCTURE ON A SINGLE SUPPORT
28 October 2025
The eleventh edition of the national creative skills competition "Varna Spaghetti Engineering" will be held on 1 November - the Day of the People's Enlighteners, at the Educational and Sports Complex of Varna Free University. It will bring together teams from the vocational secondary schools of construction, architecture and geodesy from Varna, Shumen, Sofia, Veliko Tarnovo and Burgas. The organizer is the Department of Construction of Buildings and Structures at the Faculty of Architecture of VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar", which was awarded the Varna award for contribution to engineering education.
This year, student teams will design and build a flat roof structure supported by only one column – an architectural and structural solution that demonstrates both technical knowledge and creative and practical skills. The structure must be no less than 50 centimeters high, cover the largest possible area and withstand a concentrated load of at least 300 grams, applied to the parts furthest from the column. The task requires teams to find the optimal combination of geometry, strength and economy of materials, by applying knowledge of physics, mathematics, structural mechanics, building construction, wood, steel and reinforced concrete structures. Each team will have 180 minutes and limited resources – two packages of spaghetti with a total weight of one kilogram and a hot glue gun with 15 cartridges. During the tests before the jury, the teams will load their structures themselves, with weights being added in stages until the spaghetti structure loses stability.
Each team consists of three students and one student consultant from the Architecture or Construction of Buildings and Structures majors at Varna Free University. The students will assist the participants in choosing a structural scheme and in its implementation. The jury, composed of representatives of the chambers of builders, architects and engineers in investment design, will evaluate the roofs according to four criteria – complexity, economy, load-bearing capacity and originality.
“With each edition of “Varna Spaghetti Engineering”, we set an increasingly complex challenge for the participants, which requires not only technical skills, but also in-depth STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) knowledge and creative thinking. The goal is to show that engineering thinking begins with an awareness of the foundations of sustainability – even when the material is as fragile as spaghetti”, says Assoc. Prof. Eng. Daria Mihaleva, PhD, Head of the Department of Construction of Buildings and Structures.
The concept of a roof supported by only one column is used in real architectural solutions around the world. Among the most interesting examples are the Inverted Umbrellas in Nanjing, China; motorised solar umbrellas in Saudi Arabia; mushroom houses in the USA, etc. They show that even a seemingly unstable structure can achieve impressive stability if geometry and materials are used wisely.
In its 11 editions, “Varna Spaghetti Engineering” builds a bridge between vocational schools, universities and the construction industry. Over the years, the challenges have become more and more unusual and complex – a 282-centimeter-high spaghetti tower became the winner in 2023, and last year a bridge made of 800 grams of spaghetti withstood a load of 12.5 kilograms. These results show that with creativity and engineering thinking, sustainable structures can be implemented even with non-standard materials.