The New Market in Budakeszi

Architects: Gábor Bártfai Szabó, Zoltán Horváth
Text: Levente Móré
Photos: Benedek Bognár

A sense of humour, direct bonding with nature, as well as the presence of mature modernism all contribute to create exciting impressions, when we are making a tour of the new market in Budakeszi designed by Gábor Bártfai-Szabó, Zoltán Horváth and their fellow architects. The greatest merit of this complex is that instead of being serious it attracts attention by playfulness. Architects from Bártfai-Horváth studio had about one and a half weeks to design a new communal space of the suburban settlement which has had no main square so far, whilst having the modest budget of building one or two detached family houses for the project. This task was no less than creating a character-making component on the site which has the potentials to shift existing accents and thus attracts attention. They chose a childhood inspired fairytale-like symbol. Set on a point-shaped foundation, the 3,4-4 metre tall steel umbrella-structures with wooden facework each feature a flower motif, which is the key characteristic of the project, beneath which we can observe the spectacle from a strikingly unusual perspective: we may feel that we are walking underneath huge flowers as if we were beetles.

Architects: Gábor Bártfai-Szabó, Zoltán Horváth – Bártfai-Horváth Architects
Fellow architects: Iulia Agyagási, Csilla Fekete, Zsombor Papp, Péter Peitl
Structure: Zoltán László
Electrical engineering: Zsolt Beharka
HVAC: Márton Varga
Garden: Mónika Buella
Main contractor: János Kókai – Hansa Ltd.