Family House Garden, Budaörs
Garden of the Year 2022

Landscape architecture: Balázs Almási, Roland Szurovecz
Text: Eszter Götz
Photos: Balázs Almási, Eszter Miller, Roland Szurovecz

The garden of a detached family house built on a steep slope in the hillside of Budaörs has won the Garden of the Year 2022 award. Its designers, Balázs Almási and Roland Szurovecz have created a landscape garden in an extremely difficult terrain, which forms a transition between the city and the countryside: the nature reserve behind the rear boundary of the site and the built environment meet here in a rare sort of harmony. The lateral garden with a width of just 3 metres including the walkway, the steep slope between the garage and the terrace retaining wall in the front garden, and the 26-metre shift in level between the lower and upper parts of the plot were a major challenge to design work. However, the openness and trust of the clients overcame these challenges and Balázs Almási and his team have created something genuinely unique, which, apart from requiring minimal irrigation and maintenance, shows its different faces with the changes of the seasons. From around the house to the topmost, almost completely wild part, there is a serpentine walkway with steps made from old railway sleepers. The winding path leaves open large areas of plants and careful planting. Below the central terrace section is a drought-tolerant rocky composition with a Mediterranean vibe. A rustic solid wood staircase leads down to the lower lounge, where an outdoor kitchen is also located. Water supply throughout the entire garden requires minimal machinery and water, as the perennials used over the vast surface area have been selected so as to tolerate the extreme conditions of the arid south-facing slope, so drip irrigation has proven to be sufficient.