Markó Street, Budapest

Architects: Miklós Dombi, Tamás Pintér
Text: Tamás Ulrich
Photos: József Hajdú

The designs of the dwelling-houses in Honvéd Street (Lipótváros area) by the Municipal Electric Works of Budapest were made for an architectural tender published in 1926. The raw brick facade of the complex with its playful articulation, the multilevel windows, and powerful brick projections evoke designs of American industrial buildings. The electric subplant ceased to operate here in 1990, but the company still has its own rooms and presence in the building today. The complex is a nationally protected historic building but the transformer house has received new functions and has been rebuilt several times. The most recent remodelling took place in 1997 when the glazed staircase was built and the windows on the roof plane were installed. The reconstruction started in 2014 and completed by now involved the replacement of the missing bricks on the facade, cleansing the surfaces, the metal and stone components, and the insulation to line the interior walls of the facades. The original interior staircase with a stretched flight made of artificial stone and the arched steel tube railings were also renewed. The result is an elegant downtown office block preserving the original brick facade, the stone cornices, the multilevel openings and projections, the art deco style ornamentations gracing the facades, the sculptures and stone carvings, that have been restored to their original glory.

General, architectural and interior design: DPI Design Kft.
Architects: Tamás Pintér, Miklós Dombi
Fellow architect: Gergely Oláh
Architectural engineering: Richárd Reisch – FRT Raszter Építésziroda Kft.
Structure: László Szántó, Veronika Csomor – EXON 2000 Kft.
HVAC: Zoltán Kalmár, Tamás Mottl, Csaba Makáry – Agorex Kft.
Electrical engineering: Richárd Bartha, Tamás Piatkó – Agorex Kft.
Fire protection: Dr. Zoltán Csizmadia – Vigilo Kft.
Environment protection: Kiss Leizer Géza Károly
Client: Bonemo Kft.