Press house in the Balaton Highlands

Architects: Katalin Csillag, Zsolt Gunther
Text: Anett Mizsei
Photos: Balázs Danyi

The material and immaterial components of architecture interact in the concept of Katalin Csillag and Zsolt Gunther’s press house designed to be built in the Balaton Highlands. The encounter of structures and light creates living rhythms that change with the times of the day and the seasons, on different scales: in the interrelationship of levels, in the proportions of interior and exterior spaces, and in the light-shadow effects of their details. The concept has taken an analytical approach, breaking down the traditional spatial structure of the press house into its elements and seeking a balance between the needs of the present and the traditional, local way of life. Each of the three levels of the building is a variation following a traditional landscape pattern, without creating unnecessary formal complications or disrupting the purity of the archetypal form. The lowest part of the building, which is still below ground level, is turned ninety degrees from the perpendicular axis of the typical building volume, while the attic at the top, with its recesses, loosens the volume made up of compact forms. The slightly different character of the three storeys precisely follows the functional needs and requirements. The lower level, recessed into the mountain and housing the private spaces, acts as a “base body” for the volume of high roofs that passes over it, balanced on the supporting walls, with one end nestling to the ground and the other floating above it. The roof of the lowest level serves as a terrace for the living room, in two directions, with two different orientations, and thus communicates with its surroundings in three directions.

Architects: Katalin Csillag, Zsolt Gunther
Project leaders: Gábor Kállay, Kristóf Molnár, Zsolt Henczel
Structure: Csongor Attila Pap
HVAC: Gábor Vincze – InnoÉpület
Electrical engineering: Rudolf Kálnay, Tibor Fürész
Building automatisation: László Farkas– Wolf-Men