National Museum Restoration and Storage Centre, Budapest

Architect: Zsolt Vasáros
Text: Tamás Kiss
Photos: Balázs Danyi

The Budapest-based National Museum Restoration and Storage Centre has been officially inaugurated. The complex is located right next to the City Park on the site of the former hospital, and has been built within the framework of a brown field development as part of the Liget Budapest project. It has more than significant functions: it offers at last adequate and suitable storage capacities and conditions for processing the works of art and stock possessed by three museums, among them that of the Museum of Fine Arts which is of special international significance. It fulfills and meets criteria and requirements that the museums have had for a long time: it is home to the basic institutional backgrounds of the Museum of Fine Arts, the Hungarian National Gallery and the Ethnographical Museum providing ideal and high-standard contemporary conditions for professional research work, restoration and conservation of art pieces, as well as cutting-edge storage. Functionwise, the house is a hybrid: it is a joint intersection of scientific, administrative, production, studio and laboratory work. A carefully prepared study process preceeded the finalization of the design programme, primarily based on the experience of representatives of the special fields concerned, specialist literature, and a detailed study of similar institutions.

General concept: Narmer Építészeti Stúdió
Leading architect: Zsolt Vasáros DLA
Project architect: Zsolt Megyesi
Architects: Áron Sasvári, Anikó Somlai, Emőke Bandur-Juhász, Gábor Nagy
Fellow architects: Ágnes Véner, Ágnes Eiszrich, András Gáll, Petra Kováts, Anna Kőnig, Veronika Krauth, Melinda Vasáros-Lévai, Bianka Molnár, Diána Nusszer, Anna Szabó, Tamás Mayer, Gergely Sági, Réka Szabó, Adrienn Bálint, Ádám Békés, Bálint Tari
Graphic design: Zsuzsanna Brotesser, Renáta Zsarnóczky
Landscape: Krisztina Müller
Regulatory plan: Dr. Béla Nagy
Project maganement: Óbuda Group–Liget Mérnök Konzorcium
Main contractor: Strabag Építő Kft.
Client: Városliget Zrt.