The New Headquarters of 3h Architects, Budapest

Architects: Katalin Csillag, Zsolt Gunther
Text: Anna Zöldi
Photos: Tamás Bujnovszky

With incredible consistency, 3h’s leading designers, Katalin Csillag and Zsolt Gunther have created an elegant white screen within the turn-of-the-century framework, in front of which any vision can come to life. The turn-of-the-century building is a three-storey, unarticulated volume topped with a mansard roof, Art Nouveau-style window frames, and simple stucco gables, located on the edge of the elegant Kis-Svábhegy villa district. The guiding principle during the renovation project was to preserve the appearance of the building in its entirety. The stucco, the reliefs and the railings were renovated, and the windows and doors were replaced with thermally insulated glazing, with a screen-printed pattern that imitates the original delicate divisions. The façade, which had been painted yellow before, was given an elegant, pale, barely perceptible gray palette which highlights the plasticity of the snow-white façade. Inside, however, the spaces were treated freely. The service functions were placed in the center, separated by airy room dividers, with the office spaces arranged around them along the façades. The first floor is directly connected to the back garden which has been transformed from a neglected wasteland into an idyllic paradise. The office spaces were created on the second floor, where there are no doors; only the cubes of the service blocks, also designed in the center, act as spatial furniture, dividing the work areas. The top floor is the attic, which truly floats like a crown above the white structures. The contemporary tone, the no-frills logic, and the subtle references to the fact that we are in a house built a hundred years ago merge into a quiet and restrained elegance.

General planning: 3h architects
Lead architects: Katalin Csillag, Zsolt Gunther
Fellow architects: Zsolt Henczel, Adrienn Négyessy, Tamás Békesi, Monika Korsós, Kristóf Szabó, Julianna Lánczky, Júlia Gunther
Landscape: Gergely Lád, Gergő Barcsay – Geum Studio
Structure: Tamás Máté – MGT
HVAC: Gábor Vincze – InnoÉpület
Electrical engineering: Ferenc Kelemen – Kelevill