The Look-Out on Lila Hill Re-Opened

Architect: József Koller
Text: Anett Mizsei, Vilmos Katona
Photos: József Hajdú

The tower built for geodesic measurings was built on top of the 313 metre hill in 1977 and has been now facelifted after a long period of isolation to welcome visitors in safety. As a result of the trend to construct a large number of look-outs in the past few years, this is s simple and yet loveable structure with symbolic significance. Crowning Lila (Purple) Hill it is an unusually shaped slender timber structure with a framework measuring 8×8 metres, which is deliberately not a tower: it opens up as a flower on the remains of the war. It both covers and adjusts itself to the existing foundation without overgrowing it, and thus respects its strictly protected natural environment. On the ground floor a regular circle shape and the approximately circular horizontal plan of twelve angles translate the cylinder made of concrete. However, the structure laid with some intervals much in the same way as a „boronafal” gradually moves out of this regular geometry whilst growing and evolving upward. A passage opens from the concrete cylinder shape: this is the only point where one can experience the dark interior resembling a well. The top level, the actual look-out deck evokes a symmetrical shell form: it is the symbol of El Camino, which proves that this formal resemblance is hardly a coincidence. When viewing it from below, from next to the entrance to the tower, one can see the very same axial symmetry defining the structure.

General design: Koller és Társa Kft.
Leading architect: József Koller
Architect: Csaba Tóth
Structure: László Szőnyi – GEON Építész Stúdió
Main contractor: Fitotron – System Kft.