Lauder Javne School Extension, Budapest

Architect: Zoltán Király
Text: Gabriella Uhl
Photos: György Palkó

The Lauder Javne School was launched in 1990 within the expanded education system, and in 1996 Csaba Virág and Judit Z. Halmágyi designed the school building in the hilly, wooded area of Budakeszi út. Described as a post-modern style design, the building complex is modelled more on the campus design familiar from American universities than that of the austere block of downtown Budapest schools. The three wings and the gym hall are arranged around a central, domed auditorium approached from the front. Since its inception, Lauder offered a small-group programme of complex personal development, distinct from traditional frontal education, and its continued development over time has necessitate the expansion of the building. TIBA Architects Studio was commissioned to design this. The new building takes into account the challenges of the topography and a respectful but creative adaptation to the house completed in 1996. It interprets the centrally organised building complex by Virág as a pavilion system, and adds a further series of pavilions, unified in volumes but with offsets to show the internal units on the axis. The two pavilion systems are connected by a bridge , which is more like a viaduct in shape and proportions, in a highly ingenious way, reflecting the terrain. This elegant, airy solution shows the generosity and ingenuity that has been invested in creating a functional, contemporary building with a focus on detail that is characteristic of the whole extension.

General planning: TIBA Architects Stúdió
Lead architect: Zoltán Király
Project architect: Zsófia Buzder-Lantos
Architects: Ágnes Jobbágy, Dávid Szmetana, Csongor Hajdú, Tünde Tóth
Structure: Péter Markovits, Angéla Deczky, Márton Szecsey – M.T.M. Markovits Engineering
HVAC: Gábor Szigyártó – SMG-SISU Budapest
Electrical engineering: György Kapitor, Zsolt Aranyos – Zone-Plan
Fire protection: Béla Nagy, Gabriella Pukánszky – Flamma Contra
Landscape, garden: Péter István Balogh DLA, József Major, Luca Hrabák – S73