The „Mushroom” and Beyond

Architects: Levente Szabó, Zsolt Gyüre
Text: Krisztina Somogyi
Photos: Tamás Szentirmai

The structure referred to as the Gomba („Mushroom”) has been a protected monument since 1997. Its conditions preceding the facelift project illustrates that the building hardly survived until the turn of the millennium. Several architects and city planners gave up on it, and even the first scheme of the underground line No. 4 presents it as a structure that might be demolished. The contrast with the present is striking: the building for traffic has been simplified into essential through modernization, the structure of the slender pillars beneath the circular blade roof, the airy permeable pavilion open from three sides is an obvious proof of the fact that the structure forms part of the national heritage and is thus to be protected. Salvage of the building was launched in 2009 when a tender for architectural concepts was published.
The realized concept lends more articulation to the elegant structural constituents. As a result, the rows of pillars and the wrap-around roof are even more pronounced. Based on the original plans by Schall, the idea of transparency was born: outside and inside, here and there are connected. Designers paid due care and attention to every single detail here and applied means absolutely reduced. There are no boxes on the roof, structures meet in plane, the glass panels are bent and curved. The building has thus been transformed into an essential structure, which is even more iconic and more precisely articulated than before.

Original plans: József Schall (1942)
General design: Hetedik Műterem Kft.
Leading architects: Levente Szabó, Zsolt Gyüre
Fellow architects: Orsolya Simon, Dávid Kohout, Balázs Biri
Landscape: Csenge Csontos †, Borbála Gyüre – Geum Műterem Kft.
Frame: András Nagy – BEND-Stat Kft.
HVAC: Ildikó Cser – Cser & Cser Mérnöki Iroda Bt.
Electrical engineering: Gábor Barna – Deductor Bt., Péter Balázs – Artvill Kft.
Structures: Dr. László Kakasy , Dr. Gergely Dobszay – Kakasy és Társa Kft.
Main contractor: Vortex Építő Kft.