Museum Quarter Renovation Project, Sopron

Architect: Dávid Józsa
Text: Tamás Kiss
Photos: Richárd Tóth

After several years of planning and construction work, visitors to Sopron can finally take possession of the Museum Quarter on Main Square. All the buildings of the institution are in themselves testimonies to centuries of architectural heritage, with valuable architectural layers from the Roman period to the recent past. The initial concept was to create a centre for the scattered museums in the city, where, in addition to their day-to-day museological and scientific work, they could have enough space for community and educational programmes. During the renovation work, direct access was created between Storno House, the General’s House, Fabricius House and the Fire Tower. At the same time, a spacious community space, a museum shop and new exhibition spaces were furnished. The integration of the buildings’ circulation systems and the coordination of visitor routes have resulted in a complex of several buildings that is both spatially and temporally complex. In this way, Dávid Józsa and his design team have contributed to the long-term preservation of another important monumental ensemble of the city’s rich built heritage with a design approach that has preserved centuries-old architectural legacies while respecting the sensitivity of the monuments, to serve today’s needs with restrained, fittingly contemporary architectural interventions.

Client: Municipality of Sopron and NÖF Ltd.
Professional responsible: Sopron Museum
General planning: Archi.doc
Leading architect: Dávid Józsa
Fellow architects: Ádám Tátrai, András Cseh, Dávid Németh, Attila Erdei
Interiors: Sarolta Bihary
Structure: Péter Kovács, Gergely Domonkos
Fire protection: István Böröcz
HVAC: János Bánhalmi
Electrical engineering: Vilmos Szalmási
Lighting: Ferenc Haász
Landscape: Gábor Pintér
Environment rehabilitation: Judit Horváthné Korinek
Curator of the exhibition: Mariann Tóthné Szlavkovszky
Exhibition installation: NARMER Studio