Columbarium of the Evangelical Church in Zugló, Budapest

Architect: András Krizsán
Text: Tamás Kiss
Photos: Dániel Dömölky

The new columbarium of the Evangelical Church in Zugló was completed at the end of last year. The burial place with urn niches, which had been planned for several years for the members of the congregation, was initially intended to be located in the churchyard, but the design concept changed over the years. The completed columbarium was placed in a former storage room with a floor area of only nine square meters, thus forming an integral part of the church space. The spacious feel of the nave is transformed into a welcoming, intimate small room when entering the columbarium. The calm architecture of the interior is defined by white-painted walls and pale sand-colored fiber cement urn walls. The surface of the L-shaped urn walls running along the edge of the space up to the ceiling is divided into a regular pattern of small niches, creating a kind of rational geometric pattern. The section of the urn wall opposite the entrance is particularly interesting: in the corner, there is a kind of mysterious “passageway”. The columbarium steps back in this narrow section, and through the hidden window opening behind it, a cross emerges from the solid bands along the small square openings in the fiber cement panels.

Architect: András Krizsán DLA
Fellow architect: Lajos Szabó
Interiors: András Krizsán DLA
Electrical engineering, lightning protection: Imre Kocsis 
Client: Budapest-Zugló Lutheran Parish
Main contractor: GaDa Bútor – Dávid Horváth, Lengyel and Co. – Zoltán Szauder