MOL Campus, Budapest

Architects: Foster and Partners, Finta és Társai Építész Stúdió
Interior Architects: KINZO Architekten, Minusplus
Text: Péter Debreczeni
Photos: Attila Gulyás

MOL Campus is the very first skyscraper in Budapest and the tallest office building all over Hungary. It is built on land between Kopaszi dam and the new, densely developed residential and office district, bordered by Dombóvári road to the north and the bay and a park to the south. The special local zoning plan allowed for the construction of a 28-storey, 120-metre-high tower block on the western part of the site, while only a lower, 5-storey, slab-like structure was permitted on the eastern half. The owner’s vision was about a cohesive, high-quality complex including as many common spaces as possible, so it was important to integrate the tower and the pie-like structure. Its designers were selected through a multi-stage international invitational competition. As a result, Fosters &Partners+Finta Studio designed the architecture of the tower and KINZO+MINUSPLUS won the interior design. The involvement of two different design approaches has had a positive impact on the building. The façade is closed to the west, but completely open in all other directions, the floors are separated by characteristic metal perimeters, with uninterrupted views provided by full-height curved glass partitions. The materials and technical solutions used here are of an outstanding quality by international standards, and the designers have tried to make the most of the conditions and faculties in every possible way.

Architects: Giles Robinson, Nicola Scaranaro, Chantal Aquilina – Foster + Partners
General architecture: Finta és Társai Építész Stúdió Kft.
Leading architect: Antal Fekete
Coordinating architects: Gábor Mezei, Imre Walton
Architect: Zoltán Tóth
Fellow architects: Melinda Csáki, Zoltán Kulcsár, Keller-Márku Judit, Gergő Lőczi, Katalin Csiszár, Sara Aliakbari, Petra Tóth, Faezeh Soltani, Anna Heckenast, Gábor Heckenast, András Koncsol, Lívia Jenei, Anna Pecze, Mariann E. Honti, Gyöngyi Kalmár, Tamás Bene, Bence Gál
Framework: Zsigmond Dezső, László Szabó, Ágnes Nyakó, Attila Kocsis – Hydrastat
HVAC: Tibor Gáspár, Sándor Köllő, Gyula Reisz, Mónika Malustyik – Körös Consult
Electrical engineering: Márton Méhész – VA-IQ
BMS: Zsolt Onea – Artrea Consulting
Environment: Sándor Mohácsi, Ida Bogáta Bugnics – S73
Public utilities: Andrea Németh – KASIB Engineering
Facades: Ágnes Koltay – Koltay Facades
BIM management: Imre Hörcsik, Zsolt Oláh– Studio In-Ex
Structure: Richárd Reisch, Attila Ámon – Frt-Raszter Architects
Environment protection, acoustics: Gusztáv Józsa– Józsa és Társai 2000
Fire protection: Lajos Horváth, Richárd Balogh, Lívia Maczkó – Pyrosim Ltd., Lajos Gábor Takács Dr, Csaba Szikra – Takács-Tetra Architects
Sprinkler: Viktor Hargitai – MELDE Ltd.
Traffic: Ádám Rhorer – Közlekedés Ltd.
Kitchen technology: Harangi Katalin – GHP Ko-Tech
Geothermal heat pump system: Zoltán Korompay, Márton Gallay – Geoconcept