Reconstruction of Sipeki Balás Mansion, Budapest

Architects: Balázs Falvai, Márton Nagy, Bettina Ónodi, Dávid Török
Text: Miklós Vannay
Photos: Antal Bánhegyesy

The Sipeki Balás Mansion is one of the last works of Ödön Lechner, a romantic, dynamic, complex volume, a work of art, with an original metal structure conservatory facing the front garden, and folk art inspired decorations gracing the façade. The designers of the reconstruction have carefully restored it and also added a new block to extend it. The U-shaped red stone components of the new parapet around the terrace are reminiscent of the ornamentation on the front of the building. The coloured exposed concrete plinth matches the old structure’s artificial stone plinth, but contrasts with it in colour, subtly indicating the new presence. The interior of the villa has been carefully restored. The necessary new components, such as the elevator, the ground floor bathrooms serving the building’s guest circulation, the kitchenette and the cloakrooms, have been included in the intermediate or lateral spaces. Behind the mansion is the new event building, which, despite its size, is similar in appearance to the old glass pavilions in the garden. A small, sheltered, sunken courtyard has been created between the old and the new structures. The reinterpretation is youthful, refreshing and experimental: the designers looked to the past to find the future of the building.

General planning: dmb műterem
Lead architects: Balázs Falvai DLA, Márton Nagy DLA, Bettina Ónodi, Dávid Török DLA
Fellow architects: Tünde Fekete, Ábel Györgyi, Miklós Megyesi, Angéla Soltész
Structure: Ákos Medek Dr
Building constructions: Balázs Higi
HVAC: Zoárd Gyula Mangel
Electrical engineering: Ferenc Vilmos Rajkay
Accessibility: András Pandula
Garden: Edina Massány
Roads: Dénes Tódor
Public utilities: Lajos Székely
Art historians: Levente Csomortány, Judit Gömöri, Erika F. Dóczi
Client: National Association of the Hungarian Blind and Visually Impaired