The Central Building of the Kemenes Volcano Park in Celldömölk

Architect: László Földes
Text: Györgyi Pál, Gábor Komjáthy
Photos: Tamás Bujnovszky

Mining activities going on for fifty years in Kemenes resulted in huge scars on the crater and thus exposed the processes and layers of ancient volcanic activities creating a brand-new texture visually and geologically. This in fact inspired volcanologist Dr. Szabolcs Harangi to a large-scale innovative development for tourism simultaneously suited to facilitate science and entertainment, high-standard and yet playful learning and familiarizing with natural values whilst protecting them, whilst also boosting the economy of the region. The most prominent feature of this project, the Volcano Centre is meant to be a real attraction of the site: it solitarily emerges to stand out against its sloping and flat surroundings. The materials and the palette used here truly reflect the concept referring to both the geological product and human activities in the recent past. This cut-up space makes a highly exciting, adventurous and zigzagging system also translatable in its nature. Components organised like a bridge joined by hanging stairs and galleries orchestrate and blend the seemingly floating parts of space here facilitating traffic and communication, whilst the chasm-like atriums bordered by them intensify the tension generated by the height-depth experience which is in turn emphasised by the interior box-like cubes that partly reach into this space.

General design: Földes és Társai Építésziroda Kft.
Leading architects: László Földes, Csaba Balogh
Architect: Orsolya Tatár-Gönczi
Fellow architects: Ágnes Deigner, Levente Sirokai, Péter Sónicz
Structure: Zoltán V. Nagy
HVAC: György Léderer
Electrical engineering: Judit Balázs
Roads: Katalin Karácsonyné Nedeczky
Landscape: Katalin Lukács
Rehabilitation: Anna Kormányos
Fire protection: Szabolcs Dala