Centre of the Calvinist Congregation, Budaörs

Architect: Zoltán Berzsák
Text: György Major
Photos: József Hajdú

Budaörs was a village of 6,000 Catholic Swabians back in the early-20th century. Today it is a town with 30,000 residents of heterogenuous religious and cultural background. A unique feature of the historic centre is a section of the main road divided into three lanes, which may be interpreted as a longitudinal square. Here is the location of the newly built home of the Calvinist congregation. The entry for the tender for the extension and renovation of the former place of worship and parsonage submitted by architect Zoltán Berzsák and his team had a concept presenting that the existing framework does not provide appropriate architectural solutions for a follow-up. Their strategy proved to be right; in 2018, when the congregation had the chance to purchase a new site they were commissioned with the designs. Divided into two buildings, the programme was arranged in a development following two architectural principles of formation taking advantage of the inclination of the terrain, the faculties and constraints of the urban environment. From the direction of the main street, the higher end of the lot was reserved for the communal and service rooms of the congregation as well as for the church itself. The lower third of the site was developed with a two-storey building with a high roof to contain the apartments of the pastors of the congregation and their families. The space between the two houses serve as an intermediate zone connects to the church and green zone, and a car park which can be used as an outdoor venue for events. The two types of architectural formation are integrated by the cladding with whitewashed brick-size concrete constituents.

Client: Budaörs Lutheran Church
General architecture: 4 plusz Építész Stúdió Kft.
Leading architect: Zoltán Berzsák
Fellow architects: Katalin Konyha, Noémi Rácz, Dorottya Szvák, Csongor Csintalan
Structure: Balázs Puskás, Márton Kerényi – Terraplan ’97 Kft.
HVAC: József Kalmár, Máté Molnár – Piraton Komplex Kft.
Electrical engineering: Barnabás Kánai
Fire protection: Gergő Érces
Garden: Franciska Tézli-Szabó
Acoustics: Andor Tamás Fürjes
Main contractor: Uhrinwest Kft.