Apartment Building, Budapest

Architect: Gábor Bártfai-Szabó
Text: Miklós Okrutay

Photos: Tamás BujnovszkyBuilt on the corner of Székely Bertalan and Szondi streets in Terézváros, the condominium seeks responses to the duality between the inherited cityscape and the livable, inhabitable interior spaces as we interpret them today. Here, the spirit of experimentation has given birth to some quite novel and sometimes surprising solutions. The streetscape looks of the corner building is in itself extremely powerful, but the most important, prominent details that define it are not in themselves: they are the consequences of the overall building volume, the layout and the internal spatial organization. The plan originally consisted of uniformly small apartments for rent, so the basic spatial configuration was defined by identical units arranged side by side. The square-shaped corner lot foregoes the traditional framed building design typology and is an L-shape. This eliminates the awkward overlooking between the courtyard wings. The corridor design has been replaced by a central corridor system, but the circulation space does not turn into a closed-heated interior space, its formulation as an alley-like open air space is one of the most exciting solutions of the house. The random perforation of the staircase wall opens up small lookouts, through which the communal space of the house provides a dynamic connection to the contextual environment. The slots that run through the building are placed in a serious volume-forming position, the intersections turn the building corner into an independent constituent, a kind of tower, so that the editing impulse can then complete the form by shaping the roof dome. The playful use of warm yellow frames in the dark tones of the façade are emblematic gestures. The house takes its place in the streetscape in a lively, fresh way, offering ideas for further reflection as a kind of architectural free play.

Leading architect: Gábor Bártfai-Szabó
Architects: Mariann Nagy, Kinga Radnóczi, Orsolya Zsovák
Structure: Tibor Éles
HVAC: Tamás Oltvai
Electrical engineering: Csaba Zentai
Fire protection: György Decsi
Elevator: László Déri
Roads: Miklós Ittzés
Soil mechanincs: Vilmos Béla Mátyás