Dévényi Antal Lookout Tower, Nagy-Kopasz Hill

Architect: Dr. Ferenc Lőke
Text: Miklós Okrutay
Photos: Tibor Zsitva

Rising above Piliscsaba, Nagy-Kopasz Hill is crowned with a lookout tower which is the true reflection of a very simple gesture: it seems to have been constructed much in the same way as a little boy would have built it. It features four meter long planed girders laid in a row next to each other, followed by another layer perpendicular to the one below, and so on, so that a tower taller than 11 metres could be built.
The basic idea which defines this spectacle is genuinely fascinating in its simplicity and clarity. All the delicacies and other architectural gestures seen here are derived from this. The cross section of the girders exactly matches the size of one single step, so that it actually serves as a basic module: this is from what the entire architecture of the lookout tower evolves. A total of eight flights of stairs lead up to the top along a kind of spiral carved into the stem of the tower, and each flight contains eight steps. The individual layers of beams follow each other like a formula-design, their lengths being defined by the disciplined geometry of the stairway itself. Made of Corten plates, the railing does not only precisely follow the tracery of the stairs, but also further enhances and reinforces the concept via its tones that harmonize with the patinated-rust wood. At the foot of the tower there is a site for making a campfire which is easy to identify: as a witty solution, it as shaped from similar girders as the ones used for the look-out tower.

Architect: Dr. Ferenc Lőke – LoBo Építész Stúdió
Fellow architects: József Koller – Koller Stúdió, Dr. Ákos Hoffecker, Zoltán Bánfalvi
Structure: József Maros, András Kis Bogdán – Marosterv Kft.
Heavy current, lightning protection: Tibor Vas, Miklós Mándity – ELVÉ2004 Kft.
Main contractor: Kristály-Vár Kft.
Client: Pilisi Parkerdő Zrt.