Il Bacio di Stile, Budapest

Architect: Csaba Nagy
Text: Edit Pálinkás
Photos: Tamás Bujnovszky, Tamás Opitz

The investor was now looking for an actually existing building for his vision of a multibrand luxury department store. Of many other real estates that have been standing unoccupied for a long time this Neo-Renaissance and Eclectic-style tenement house along Andrássy Avenue was the one that seemed to be ideal. Beyond the excellent faculties and potentials of its location and site, it has preserved values conveying fin-de-siécle atmosphere. The system of bridges lent the interiors of the department store a new character completed by the pierced interior facade and the lightweight glass structure which turns the inner courtile into a tourable central aula. The department store ends above the historic courtile where a new world of contemporary atmosphere starts. From the loft which has been left undeveloped an awesome view of Gellért Hill and the Buda Castle opens up beyond the cupola of the Basilica. Design work had to be realized by conveying this experience whilst including the functions of a restaurant and a bar. Invisible from the street a rising veil pierced in the middle serves as a free shape to support the roofline which reacts to meet the challenge of needs related to functions and floor-plan area, regulations referring to streetscapes, the task which was especially difficult because of the view. The basic idea of architecture was to have a continuously rising space here which was modified several times with concepts of interior design and gained its final flowing design as a result of the contribution of English interior designers.

Leading architect: Csaba Nagy – Archikon Kft.
Architects: Krisztina T. Major, Botond Benedek, Károly Pólus, Bernadett Bagó, Erika Holló, Bence Várhidi, Tamás Kiss – Archikon Kft.
Attic structure: Péter Juhász – Pallas Novo Kft.
Structure: Miklós Armuth, Gábor Cséfalvay
Art historian: Dr. Attila Déry Ph.D – Plinthosz Bt.
Interior design: Beretta Associatis.r.I., Milano – department store, GA Design International Ltd, London – restaurant, bar
Client: Web-Mind Licences Kft.