Klapka Centre, Budapest

Architect: Miklós Marosi
Text: Eszter Götz
Photos: Tamás Bujnovszky

The rapid transformation of the former industrial centre of Northern Pest has shown spectacular developments not only along Váci Road but also beyond it in the past few years. Thanks to the highly competent attitudes of the local government a large number of creative solutions have been found to annihilate the rust zone and tame it into a residential and office zone which suits both the interests of the local residents and the long-term strategies of the district. Such an investment is the new service block along Klapka Street which contains new GP offices, tenement houses, a miniature shopping centre and last but not least, an unprecedented unique phenomenon in high-density development city quarters: a hill house that overwrites and redefines the image of the neighbourhood. The building is defined by well-organised attitudes and careful attention to details of operation. The hill house contains shops, retails and department store zones, whilst in the other five-storey block houses individual shops opening from the central foyer on the ground floor, there will be a café on the first floor next to the shops, as well as a spacious general practitioners’ offices. The three upper floors include 33 apartments in total, some of which are duplexes furnished with interior stairs, which thus make adantage of the extra floor area offered by the narrow top floor containing the entire engineering system of the facility.

Architect: Miklós Marosi
Fellow architects: Anisz Rabie, Ágnes Pernesz, István Ács, István Sebő, Dániel Hódosi, Áron Dányádi, Adél Süveges, Edit Balogh
Interiors: Zsuzsa Kerecsényi, Judit Láng
Structure: Péter Váczi
Framework: Gergely Dobszay, Csaba Hadnagy
HVAC: Szilárd Szakál
Electrical engineering: András Máramarosi
Garden and roads: Flóra Pottyondi
Public utilities: Attila Bíró, Zoltán Béki, Gergely Drobni
Traffic: Zoltán Horváth
Fire protection: Judita Rauscher