Fusion Winery, Eger

Architects: Gábor Fábián, Dénes Fajcsák
Text: Marianna Berényi
Photos: Árpád Pintér

Located near the heart of Eger, Fusion winery opened its revolving lamella doors to the public in 2014. Three years earlier the young architects from Arkt Stúdió were given the chance to design a new building covering a floor area of 1,400 square metres which blends a 500 year old tufa cellar, a wine bar, a wine shop, a lounge, a tasting room suited to host 120 people, a modern kitchen, a wine treasury and an interactive museum. Buildings sitting on four various sites were united during this project. Despite the new integral image, the united structures (the outbuilding seemingly belonging to the protected Baroque-style dwelling-house in the neighbourhood, the 16-17th century carved cellar, the two spaces from the 18th-19th centuries and a detached family house built in the 20th century did not lose any of their former mass. Designers based their concepts on the dual principle of preserving existing values whilst representing historic continuity: they did not intend to hide the histories of the buildings involved, but wanted to orchestrate the impressions of various historic periods to create a new unity, and make it transparent so that the original conditions could be restored whenever needed.
Modern and traditional materials, the symbiosis of authentic and contemporary components tells us about a past which can always be revisited and revised. Communication between various dimensions and planes of historic times, thevery concept of continuity has been materialised in the roofing of ferro-conmcrete pillars which takes on several functions to summarise and orchestrate the structure of the whole complex above the front yard. Fusion is not a name chosen accidentally, but conveys a genuine message with more than one meanings which connects generations, buildings, knowledge and experience.

General design: Arkt Építész Stúdió
Architects: Gábor Fábián, Dénes Fajcsák
Interiors: Veronika Juhász
Fellow architect: Tamás Fenes
Structure: Balázs Puskás – Terraplan 97
HVAC: Tibor Gáspár, Richárd Szutter – Körös Consult
Landscape: Enikő Kapás
Main contractor: Gábor Kiss – Axion Bau-Tech
Client: Tibor Gál