The New Community Hall of Hungarian Saints’ Parish, Budapest

Architects: Mihály Balázs, Dávid Török, Balázs Falvai, Márton Nagy
Text: Eszter Götz
Photos: Antal Bánhegyesy

Located in the campus of ELTE in Lágymányos, the Hungarian Saints’ Church was extended by a new community hall, which was justified by the pure fact that the congregation attracts a lot of young people due to the proximity of the church. The building is the single structure actually built of the Budapest World Exhibition 1996 which remained on blueprint. According to the plans, this would have been the world exhibition pavilion of the Holy See, and it was to function as the church of the new university district after the closure of the exhibition. After the cancellation of the project the Hungarian Catholic Episcopacy decided to construct the church. Ferenc Török and Mihály Balázs worked out a concept defined a kind of synthesis: the design of the building reflected various stages of the Christian church architecture. Due to various reasons the exterior resembling a fortified church would have been impossible and yet inevitable, as later on a communal all would be needed even more, where some 150-200 young people participating in the congregation could meet on a weekly basis. In 2016 Mihály Balázs was commissioned to design the addition, and he involved architect Dávid Török, the son of his former fellow architect, Ferenc Török. They worked out in tandem a follow-up of te existing structure that would not compromise the spirituality of te original building, and yet almost invisibly and unnoticed it connects a space larger than 300 square metres suited for a variety of functions. The solution found contains the elevation of the slightly inclined green lane next to the church topped with a spherical dome and the positioning of the block underground.

General architecture: Balázs Mihály architect’s studio and dmb Studio
Architecture: Mihály Balázs DLA, Dávid Török DLA, Balázs Falvai DLA, Márton Nagy DLA
Fellow architects: Noémi Gyárfás, Piroska Varga, Mónika Bordás
Structure: Ákos Medek
HVAC: Zoárd Mangel, Zoltán Németh
Electrical engineering: László Kósa, Anikó Farkas
Accessibility: András Pandula
Client: Esztergom-Budapest Archdiocese
Main contractor: Laterex Ltd.