MTK Stadium, Budapest

Architect: Péter Bordás
Text: Dávid Bán
Photos: Tamás Bujnovszky, György Palkó 

Fans and supporters have got to know a new form recently which is the football-capsule. The prototype of this edifice, which seems to be a stadium”, but is smaller than an area, and yet provides the same experience, was designed by Péter Bordás and his fellow architects: named Nándor Hidegkúti Stadium, it functions as the new home of MTK sports club. Opened in 1912, this pitch has been the venue of sports events for over a century now non-stop. National teams also played here and it has hosted concerts too. It had been badly deteriorating by the turn of the millennia. Instead of renovating it, a tender was published to design a stadium with 5,000 seating capacity. Designs by Péter Bordás were selected as the best. A complicated formula had to be solved here, as the task was to build a sports structure for a League 1 team with a long history which is worthwile and yet small scale, but appears to be a stadium considering every component, and meets the strict criteria of the UEFA despite the limited floor plan. As a result, BORD Stúdió has come up with an innovative architectural programme bearing the temporary name „fottball capsule”, which was first used within the architects’ team only, but has evolved into an independent category of architecture since then. It is a construction which tries to compansate for its modest volume with architectural effects, and has the capacity to impress people like a stadium even if there are only a couple of thousands of spectators at a sports event. Hungária Boulevard was used as a starting point for the complex. From here the structure launches inward with a dynamic momentum, at its heart beneath the plate the mass of the inner structure merges into one taking on a form resembling a folding like an origami. Retraced from the boulevard, there is an elegant urban plaza at the entrance, whilst supporters of the team can enter the capsule directly from the street-level via the eastern great stand. Despite its modest dimensions, the capsule has the potential to provide a genuine arena feeling and experience owing to its architectural formation, its geometry and acoustics.

General design: BORD Stúdió
Leading architect: Péter Bordás 
Co-ordinating architect: Kata Zih 
Fellow architects: Róbert Benke, Péter Bukovszky, Zsófia Dobay, Róbert Gulyás, Béla Marsal, Tamás Mezey, Dorottya Répai, Tamás Tolvaj, István Ulmann, Eszter Vágvölgyi É., Réka Zsólyomi
Mechanical engineering: Zoltán Hollókövi – BORD Stúdió
Structure: Hydrastat Mérnöki Iroda Kft.
Client: Magyar Testgyakorlók Köre (MTK)