Winery, Mád

Architect: Csaba Bodonyi
Text: Rita Tuczai
Photos: József Hajdú

Walking along the main street of Mád, a former market town of Hegyalja region one does hardly recognize at first sight the gables of the contemporary buildings of Royal Winery rising above the roofs of houses with historic atmosphere. However, they open up powerfully and impressively when we approach them across the narrow yard surrounded by old buildings growing up on the hill. The twin-structure symmetries of the complex with its enormous gate-duplexes, buttresses, repetitions, ornamental order, clarity and simplicity suggests dignified sanctity whilst it also serves a rather complex technological procedure requiring precision relatively new in Hungary even today. The complex was built with striving for ecological perfection. The architect designed two buildings needed for tempering (one for ripening in barrels and one for bottling) with green roofs and arbours. The barrel vaulting supports a 1-metre deep soil layer, the forces of the wall perpendicular to the lower arch is passed downward by the system of pillars. The harmony of the whole complex is filtered with the strive for adjustment to the environment respectfully of the past, serving the present and prepared for the future.

Design: Bodonyi Építész Kft.
Architect: Csaba Bodonyi
Fellow architects: Szilárd Kocsis, Péter Marjas, János Hidasnémeti
Structure: László Kerényi
Installations: Péter Kádár
Electrical engineering: Gábor Münnich
Investor: Royal Tokaji Borászati Zrt. Mád
Main contractor: Adeptus Kft.