Universo Condominium, Budapest

Architects: Péter Sugár, Zsuzsa Ilyés, Tamás Kun
Text: Péter Debreczeni
Photos: Zsuzsa Ilyés, Tamás Kun

Universo is built in a neighbourhood between Soroksári Road and Üllői Road in Budapest, which has started to develop from a semi-industrial suburb into an inner-city area over the last 20 years. The original old single-storey workshop apartment blocks are being replaced by multi-storey apartment blocks, in some places preserving the existing historicist style buildings. On the long and narrow plot, the designers have planned a building with an E-shaped horizontal plan, with the street frontage articulated by setbacks. Viewed from the outside, it appears to be a unit of buildings with similar character but with different facade shapes, containing various types of apartments, the whole volume being held together by a corbelled metal roof. The lower ground floor houses apartments opening into gardens, while the upper floors all have balconies of usable size. The floor plans are fairly varied, ranging from one-room garages to 4-5 bedroom apartments. The external appearance of the house shows variety, with proportions and materials ambitioning to blend in with the surrounding historicist buildings. The building is of fine quality, it is also rational, well-designed, adjusted to the cityscape, with a usable and functional layout.

General planning: Radius B+S
Lead architects: Péter Sugár DLA, Zsuzsa Ilyés, Tamás Kun
Assistant architects: Zoltán Czáka, Zita Fodor, Fruzsina Fülöp, Diána Nusszer, Krisztián Peschka, Katalin Tóth, Péter Zsigmond
Structure: Zoltán V. Nagy – Lapidárium Engineers
HVAC: Balázs András-Tövissi, Kristóf Hargita – HAAN Stúdió
Electrical engineering: Márton Méhész – VA-IQ
Building construction: Heléna Szecskő, Emese Tóth – Studio Linear, Radius B+S
Fire protection: Béla Nagy, Gabriella Pukánszky – Flamma Contra
Landscape: Andrea Balogh – 4D Tájépítész
Acoustics: Róbert Csott – Apszis 95