Children’s Camp, Balatonfenyves

Architect: György Dénes
Text: Gábor Bártfai-Szabó
Photos: György Dénes

The local government of Budapest District II made a decision to modernize its existing children’s camp. The outdated barracks thus should be replaced by something new – this is as far as the process reached soon to be followed by a stage to accept archetypal timber huts, before György Dénes was commissioned to start designing them. The architect in tandem with the chief architect managed to talk investors into accepting brick architecture instead of lightweight prefab structures. The unique feature of the process is that children were also involved in the project after surveying their needs and creating the programmes to map the ultimate focus points and the tasks involved. The narrow street with a floor area of approximately 500 m2 had to be integrated with a waterfront lot of 4,500 m2 to host 80 children and their 8 teachers simultaneously. Next to the entrance there is an accentuated chimney-like structure to welcome visitors, next to which there are the accommodations for teachers, giving us the overall impression as if they were controlling and protecting the entrance. Located in a strict order around the interior courtyard, there are the bedrooms with the water zones in a logical arrangement in between them, and a vast expanse of a communal area towards Lake Balaton, the diner and the kitchen with its separate entrance. The windows have irregular designs, which is matched with the lively dynamics of the building masses and the playfulness of the timber structures that all come to counteract the strictness of the horizontal layout in a poetic way.

General design: DNS-Építészműterem Kft.
Architects: György Dénes, Eszter Dénes
Preliminary concept: Zsolt Gacsályi
Garden design: Zsófia Kedves
Structure: Lászlóné Bánhidi
HVAC: Tamás Vörös
Electrical engineering: Krisztina Sindelyesné Balla
Kitchen technology: Ágnes Palainé Straub
Fire protection: Róbert Németi