Budapest: The Latest Architecture and News

An international jury behind Budapest’s new National Gallery has launched a second and invited competition for a select few of the industry’s best after the first, open competition lead to “disappointing” results. Jean Nouvel, David Chipperfield, Mecanoo, Nieto Sobejano, Renzo Piano, SANAA and Snøhetta have been asked to submit proposals for a 5-building museum complex on the edge of Városliget, one of the city’s main parks. It will house the new National Gallery, the Ludwig Museum, an ethnography museum, architecture museum and photography museum.

The competition, known as the Liget Project, is being directed by jury members Wim Pijbes, the director of the Rijksmuseum, and Henri Loyrette, former director of the Louvre in Paris.

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Fundamental has shared with us their vision for the House of Hungarian Music, as part of the Liget Budapest Competition. Inspired by the Neo-Baroque and Neo-Gothic spires of the park’s monuments which surrounding it, the modest house features a folded, white canopy rooftop which illuminates its surroundings and provides natural light deep into its interiors.

More on Fundamental's proposal, after the break.

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As part of the Liget Budapest Competition, SCStudio has shared their entry for the House of Hungarian Music. A transformation of an existing city park, the project is conceived as a sequence of cultural programs - an “urban archipelago” - connected by a “naturalistic promenade” of pathways and landscape within a preserved forested area.

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Featuring around 220 events spread out over 10 days, Budapest Design Week kicks off its 11th year on October 3rd. With exhibitions, workshops, lectures and a range of other events spread across all design disciplines, the program will suit all tastes - however, perhaps the highlight for architects will be the presence of Benedetta Tagliabue, Principle of EMBT, who will give a lecture on "Blending and Experimentation" on October 8th.

Read on after the break for more on Budapest Design Week.

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Italian design firm IaN+ has put forth their vision for a pair of museums along the Dòzsa Gyorgy Boulevard in Budapest, Hungary for the Liget Budapest International Competition. Connected by a central foyer, the two exhibition spaces will be based on a common grid of structural concrete walls whose cells will form galleries. One of these museums will be devoted to photography, the other to architecture, and each building, while similar in appearance, is designed to best accommodate the work they will display.

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Ziya İmren Architects have proposed a "symphonic architectural poem dedicated to Franz Liszt and Béla Viktor János Bartók" as part of the Liget Budapest International Design Competition launched earlier this year. The architects' approach is based on the pioneering compositional methods of Franz Liszt and Bela Bartok. The design proposal brings "thematic inspiration to the fore by restructuring the classical system of a symphonic work into the form of poetry as a gesamtkunstwerk (a 'total work of art')."

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Official Danish LEGO constructors have teamed up with locals in Budapest, Hungary to build the world’s tallest LEGO tower. Rising 34.76 meters (114 feet) in front of the St. Stephen’s Basilica, the towering spire was officially registered with the Guinness book of World Records for breaking the US’ previous record of 34.43 meters on May 25th. The structure was made of 450,000 colorful bricks and appropriately topped with an oversized, Hungarian-built Rubik's Cube.

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From a distance, it would seem a traditional Christmas tree has been erected in front of the Palace of Arts in Budapest. But upon closer inspection, a surprise is revealed- the tree is made up of 365 sledges. Designed by Hello Wood, an architecture and design studio based out of Hungary, the 11 meter tree will eventually be disassembled and the sledges given to the kids of SOS Children’s Village. Read more about the installation after the break...

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