Concept Tender – 1st Prize

Concept and text: Pintér Tamás János, Simon Viktória

The Prime Minister’s Office published an open tender for concepts on potential exhibition facilities where works by Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka could be displayed in an appropriate way. The first prize of the contest went to the scheme submitted by Unitef-83 Zrt. As the venue for the exhibition of Csontváry’s oeuvre the building of the Holy Land church (Budapest, District II) was proposed. An important aspect of the scheme was to simultaneously reconstruct the protected historic structure with regard to the preservation of its existing values. Transformed several times by now, this mutilated building shall be completed whilst highlighting its most significant values and making the least interventions possible to suit it to contain all the new functions. The oeuvre exhibition as Csontváry himself imagined – in line with his description of the planned exhibition titled „For the benefit of handicapped people and orphans of war victims” – shall be implemented in the rooms of the former church building. By partly completing the original structure, the building shall house a 1660 m2 exhibition area, a 395 m2 foyer and additional rooms, as well as a cafeteria and museum shop on 315 m2. Works to be exhibited here by Csontváry shall be organized around the three „leitmotif” paintings he designated himself.

Architects: Pintér Tamás János, Simon Viktória – Unitef-83 Zrt.
Fellow architects: Tóth Domonkos