A Cannon Foundry, Sárospatak – ICOMOS Award 2015

Architects: István Mányi, Gábor Kardos
Text: Rita Tuczai
Photos: László Váradi, Eszter Kuzsmiczki

Designed by Mányi Stúdió, the pavilion now completed functions as a protective structure which received ICOMOS prize in the spring of 2015: it was primarily meant to protect the remains and reconstructions of the cannon foundry which was active from 1631 to 1648 within the castle of Sárospatak built by the Rákóczi family so that they should not fall into oblivion. Based on reconstruction analysis, the former workshop was restored and remodelled into an interactive exhibition area converted: as a result, it floods visitors with a multitude of complex and orchestrated stimuli in the installation-like framework of the protective structure. That the wall remains have been preserved in such condition that renders them easy to reconstruct is due to the fact that the ruins of the building had been buried when the park was converted into an English-style garden. Then the historical remains were thus carved out of this hill during their archeological excavations. Cladding its glass walls with a grid made of larch, the pavilion itself hides into this curve. The articulation and configuration of the interior is defined by the masonry system and levels of the original revealed building as well as by the intention to to present the reconsructed components of the exposed remains of the most important technological equipment. The old walls were filled up with the same stone as it had originally had to reach the present-day street-level and units of the horizontal plan are visible in the flooring. All this is presented in the steel pillar-frame structure which appears light and airiy both on the inside and the outside, features contemporary architectural technologies and diagonal circular steel struts to strain the form. The pavilion thus creates a worthy architectural environment in which the aesthetic values and functionality of the building contributes to a large extent to the emphasis on the topic of the exhibition itself.

Architects: István Mányi , Gábor Kardos
Fellow architects: Katalin Bálint, Gábor Hajdú, Katalin Újhelyi, Tamás Ükös
Interior design: László Gergely, László Zobor, László Pusztai – Stúdió G Bt.
Archeology: István Ringer – MNM Rákóczi Múzeuma
Oven reconstruction: Miklós Rácz, Károly Belényesy
Structure: Lajos Szabó, István Molnár, László Schneider – Du Plan Kft.
Electrical engineering: Julietta Nagy – Kipterv Kft.
Elevator: Tamás Szabó – IXlift Kft.
Fire protection: Áron Kerényi
Expert of rehabilitation: András Pandula