Budapest

The Central European University’s Budapest campus, designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey and shortlisted for the RIBA International Prize, is under threat of abandonment due to ongoing verbal and legislative attacks by Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

As reported by CNN, university officials have spoken publically about plans to leave Budapest, with the university’s board recently approving the opening of a satellite campus in Vienna in 2019. The decision would cast doubt over the second construction phase of the O’Donnell + Tuomey vision.

+ 11

Sou Fujimoto’s House of Hungarian Music is set to begin construction in an idyllic natural setting beside Városliget Lake in Budapest’s largest park. Having won a competition for the scheme’s design in 2014, the Japanese architect has designed a “modern and extravagant home for music” drawing inspiration from both the natural and musical worlds.

The scheme forms part of the Liget Budapest project, one of Europe’s largest museum developments, which also includes the striated Museum of Ethnography by French firm Vallet de Martinis DIID Architectes and the cuboidal PhotoMuseum Budapest and Museum of Hungarian Architecture by Hungarian firm Középülettervező Zrt.

+ 6

Hello Wood has revived its highly-successful POP-UP Park, bringing a touch of vibrancy to an underused square in downtown Budapest. Having built the structures in the summer of 2017, the park has returned one year later to provide “a democratic space for all social groups embedded within the everyday movement of the city.”

Open 24 hours per day, the park acts as a free-to-use space for people from all walks of life. Supported by the Municipality of Budapest, the scheme is situated in a frequented though empty spot beside the Budapest City Hall.

+ 25

The Hungarian government is introducing a new skyscraper ban in the hopes of preserving the Budapest skyline. Gergely Gulyás, minister of the prime minister's office, recently stated that the ban will affect all new buildings in Budapest over 90 meters tall. The ban will not limit projects already approved with planning permission, including Foster + Partners' MOL Campus Tower, a high-rise being built as part of the new headquarters for the MOL Group. The 120 meter tower will be exempt because it has already won planning permission.

+ 51

• Architects

  Építész Stúdió

• Location

  Budapest, Hungary

• Lead Architects

  Tamás Fialovszky, Gergő Jedlicska, Gergely Kenéz

• Area

  170.0 m2

• Project Year

  2018

• Photographs

  Gergő Jedlicska, Gergely Kenéz

+ 25

• Architects

  Attilafk Architects

• Location

  Budapest, Hungary

• Lead Architect

  Attila F. Kovács

• Project Year

  2015

• Photographs

  Tamás Bujnovszky

UNStudio, in collaboration with Buro Happold Engineering, has won an international competition for the design of a new bridge spanning the River Danube in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Their scheme will serve as a blueprint for the "Galvani Bridge" connecting South Buda and Csepel, balancing graceful aesthetics with strong performance.

The competition for the bridge was conceived with the goal of decreasing the 600,000-strong daily traffic load on existing bridges across the Danube by 40,000. As well as easing traffic congestion, the bridge is intended to embody a liveable, loveable, healthy image of 21st-century Budapest.

+ 10

Imagine having input in the design process for your custom apartment built alongside the second largest river in Europe. T2.a Architects has unveiled their design for DANUBIO, a new residential development in Budapest, which aims to do just that.

The driving concept behind the development of DANUBIO is to give the freedom of design back to the residents, inviting them to give input into the configuration of units within the building. Using Grasshopper, a Rhinoceros plug in, a script was developed to allow creative flexibility in the design of each resident’s future home. This algorithm is altered every time a new resident enters the community by allowing them to define the typology, orientation, and location of their future home during the design process.

+ 23

Budapest-based architectural firm Hello Wood has continued its annual tradition of constructing wooden Christmas trees, this year expanding the program with a total of 5 trees throughout Europe. In London and Vienna, trees made of sleds recall a design concept first used by Hello Wood in 2013; meanwhile, two locations in Budapest and in the Hungarian city of Kecskemét are witnessing the return of the firm's "charity trees," installations made of firewood which are later dismantled and distributed to families in need for the winter season.

+ 52

+ 21

• Architects

  LAB5 architects

• Location

  Budapest, Váci út 96-98, 1133 Hungary

• Lead Architects

  Linda Erdélyi, András Dobos, Virág Anna Gáspár, Balázs Korényi

• Design Team

  Judit Nyerges, Rebeka Sipos, Zoltán Szegedi

• Area

  480.0 m2

• Project Year

  2017

• Photographs

  Zsolt Batár

In his new series, “Corner Symmetry,” Hungarian photographer and printmaker Zsolt Hlinka captures some of his home city of Budapest’s most stunning buildings, manipulating them to make them appear as if they are perfectly symmetrical when viewed from the corner.

Overlaid on a variety of pastel-colored skies, the photographs are taken from extreme 2-point perspective, making the buildings appear to pop straight off the page. The study is a continuation of his Wes-Anderson-reminiscent series, “Urban Symmetry.”

+ 12

Foster + Partners have revealed designs for the sustainability-minded new headquarters of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Group in southern Budapest. Known as MOL Campus, the plan will center on an environmentally-progressive structure located within in a park-like setting. When completed, it will become this city’s tallest building.

“This is a landmark project for several reasons, not only for MOL but also for Budapest,” said Nigel Dancey, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners. “It presents a unique challenge – to ensure that the building meets the functional needs of the organisation, follows the highest standards of sustainability, and is respectful of its historic surroundings.”

+ 18

• Architects

  Suto Interior Architects

• Location

  Budapest, Szabadság tér 14, 1054 Hungary

• Interior Design

  Suto Interior Architects

• Area

  300.0 m2

• Project Year

  2017

• Photographs

  Balázs Danyi

+ 27

• Architects

  PRTZN Architecture

• Location

  Budapest, Gönczy Pál u., 1093 Hungary

• Lead Architects

  Gergely Hory, Zoltán Major, Péter Müllner

• Area

  660.0 m2

• Project Year

  2016

• Photographs

  Balázs Danyi

+ 77

• Architects

  O’Donnell + Tuomey

• Location

  Nador u. 9, 1051 Budapest, Hungary

• Directors

  Sheila O’Donnell & John Tuomey

• Associate

  Mark Grehan

• Project Architect

  Ciara Reddy

• Local Architect

  Teampannon

• Project Architect (Teampannon)

  Máté Hidasnémeti

• Area

  15638.0 m2

• Project Year

  2016

• Photographs

  Tamás Bujnovszky