The House of Fates, Budapest

Architect: Attila F. Kovács
Text: György Szegő
Photos: Tamás Bujnovszky

The House of Fates has been built along Fiumei Road featuring monumental sculpturesque characteristics that exert powerful influence. Architect Attila F. Kovács and his client worked out this concept to influence emotions, to also address young visitors, including children, and to create a permanent exhibition based on visual language. He did not indulge himself to foster illusions concerning the habits and capacities of the Y and Z generations as the addressees of arts. F. Kovács offered us a visual paraphrase of the vision of silence. One arriving here cannot enter the former building of the railway station in Józsefváros built in 1864. The surface made up of piled-up raw grated stones is both rigid and impossible to walk on: it would be absurd to refer to it as the „reception area”. Outside, next to the railway building preserving its original conditions, there are two other structures featuring 21st century characters. The facade of exposed concrete is clad in rusty metal „fabric”, maybe with the aim to to avoid the trivial symbolism of barbed wire. The architecture of the wall reflecting the lack of freedom was completed by window frames of Corten steel. Standing in the centre of the House of Fates, the twin towers avoking huge railway waggons turned upside down are clad in planks the pattern of which is a reference to that of closed boxcars used for deportation.This motif as well as the Star of King David is a frequent symbol also used on gravestones in Jewish cemeteries.

Leading architect, interior design: Attila F. Kovács – Cube Design Kft.
General design: Ádám Reisz – felelős tervező, FBI Építész Kft.
Fellow architects: Krisztián Varga-Koritár, Zsolt Gacsályi, Tamás Vadász, Marcell Balázs, Veronika Borzsák, Janka Juhász, Dávid Kiss, Zsófia Paczolay, Ármin Zsigmond
Fellow interior designers: Mátyás Holló, József Árva, Bence Álmos Buzás, Zsuzsa Nagy, Nóra Novotny, Indelab Kft.
Structure: Péter Handa
Water insulation: Richárd Reisch – FRT Raszter Kft., Viktória Mile – FRT Raszter Kft.
Glass structures: György Stocker
Statics: Sándor Pintér, Zoltán Gergye – Szigma Stúdió Kft.
HVAC: Attila Bicskei, Edit Seres
Public utilities: János Bukovics
Heavy current: Zoltán Üveges – Artrea Consulting Kft., Szabolcs Fehér – Artrea Consulting Kft.
Light current: Tibor Pacher – MPS-Stúdio Kft., Gábor Bárdy – MPS-Stúdio Kft.
Garden and environment: György Szloszjár, Zoltán Stéhli – Garten-Studio Kft.
Client: MÁV Zrt.
Main contractor: Sándor Scheer, András Wolf, Zsigmond Brósz R. – Market Építő Zrt.