Reviving St Martin of Tours Parish Church

Architects: Tamás Berecz, Attila Batári
Text: Levente Szabó
Photos: Tamás Bujnovszky

Architect István Szabó designed his well-known churches at the end of his career, during his retirement years, but he had become part of the Hungarian canon as a recognized character as an architect, furniture designer and artist well before that. The church in Vizafogó has had an eventful design history and after several changes of concepts and designs later on resulted in excluding the designer. In the end Pál Borsányi made the last versions and he also managed the construction stage till the end. Almost three decades later, Tamás Berecz appeared on the scene with. His starting point was the necessity of a comprehensive technical reconstruction of the church, which he broadened to a complex revival, during which he essentially revived the concept by Szabó, in its spirituality for certain. Decades later, whilst reviving the building in Vizafogó, an important stage of Szabó’s met the essentiality of the designer Berecz’s architectural approach. As a result, its follow-up construction is harmonious with the original structure. Szabó designed organised object-like forms made from flat folded planes, which resonates with the affinity of the architect designing the revival of the building. The critical mass of responsible, reflective and critical behaviours and attitudes to the past and quasi-past has the potentials to present an alternative for the current alternative of the protection of historic monuments in Hungary built from below.

Research: Tamás Berecz
Architects: Tamás Berecz, Attila Batári – B+B műterem Kft.
Fellow architects: Szabolcs Gál, Dalma Kató, Anna Rainer
Structure: Gábor Szaniszló – Tetra Plán Kft.
HVAC: Benedek Végh – AC Consulting
Electrical engineering: Ilona Nyári – Libella 21 Bt.
Framework: Csaba Czégéni – Bala Terv Bt.
Garden, landscape: Dóra Kérey – WoW Plan Bt.
Fire protection: Levente Szőllősi – Fire Med Bt.
Acoustics: Éva Borsiné Arató – Arató A. Kft.
Rehabilitation: Anna Kormányos
Architect of the original church: István Szabó