Corvinus Palace, Budapest

Architect: Péter Reimholz
Text: Miklós Sulyok
Photos: József Hajdú

I dedicate this article written almost three years ago to the memory of Péter Reimholz. Miklós Sulyok

In the Castle District and its neighbourhood there are already over half a dozen houses built after designs by Péter Reimholz, but it is important for us not to forget that he had usually designed them in co-operation with his wife, Zsófia Csomay.
Let’s just think of our own dwelling house and then Palaház (’Slate-House’, the predecessor of which is the so-called Industrialexport office block also designed by Csomay and Gábor Gereben), Hapimag resort house, the guesthouse of Collegium Budapest Wallenberg, Logodi Center and another dwelling house in Logodi Street or the topic of this article, Corvinus Palace designed in co-operation with W6 Studio. (It still remains a mystery to me why the complex of five buildings built in four groups came to be called Corvinus Palace by building contractors.) And of course she knows how many designs meant for other sites in the Castle District have remained a blueprint throughout decades. Their latest design winning a tender is that of a dwelling house in Ferenc Toldy Street. Even though it is not a novelty, I still feel compelled to write it down here: every building designed by them has an aura of ultimate responsibility and care, having been regarded as a noble challenge. They never simply solved a problem of construction, but responded to the location and issues of history, society and arts associated with it. For Reimholz, who had lived in this neighbourhood since his childhood, it was much of a personal mission to have such buildings here. Now, a few weeks after his death we have to say it in the past tense.

Slowly, very slowly – now almost 60 years after the end of World War II – the wounds on the fabric of the Castle District in Buda seem to be healing at last. After the completion of large-scale projects such as the Royal Palace (museums), Sándor Palace (the official residence of the president of the Hungarian Republic), the Dominican monastery (Hotel Hilton), the reconstruction of the cable railway (Sikló) as well as the replacement of several dwelling houses, some of the last vacant lots were developed by the owners after designs by Péter Reimholz. However, issues of two sites are still there to be tackled: St George Square bears the wounds of the war whilst Castle Bazaar those of peace.
To continue the topic of dwelling houses, buildings designed by Reimholz and Csomay –such as Hapimag, the Wallenberg guesthouse and the newly inaugurated Corvinus Palace – are worthy of treasuring probably the most prestigious district of the country, much in the same way as dwelling houses by György Jánossy and Zoltán Farkasdy came to be parts of the history of Hungarian architecture. Reimholz regarded Jánossy his master and their houses designed for historical environments in Buda are closely associated because of their approach even though they are distant in time. As Jánossy said, this kind of attitude is nothing else than „behaviour in the environment”. However, the building authority forced the designer to „behave” like this, and thus the question may be polarized this way: is it the building authority or the architect who designs houses to be built in such a precious historical environment? I think at best both of them, in a brotherly way. In the description of the design attached to the building permit Reimholz also faced the dilemma: how to design a house which the architect can take responsibility of whilst it also meets the regulations? The high roof for example was also stipulated by the District Regulatrion Plan. This is what the architect himself thought of the project: „… in our case mass formation, distribution and form have been ultimately restricted by urban regulations defining and ordering narrow high-roofed, linearly two-dimensional forms suited for spatial walls and especially one-winged structures, the architectural means of which are evidently conservative, almost archaic and Romantic in style, resulting from their mass-formation.” Anyway, viewed from the aspect of the finished building, the replanning of the city could not have been that bad and the designer had been aware of his restrictions and limits, and masterly used the existing play field. Reimholz had all this at his fingertips, but it would be wrong to think it is possible to design in historical environment as routine work.

Including luxury apartments, this residential complex elegantly and reservedly adjusts to the site bordered by Szalag-Iskola-Donáti Streets and Donáti Lane right on the borderline of Víziváros (Watertown) and the Castle District. Its greatest merit is a new street and a tiny square created wedged in-between the buildings. Even though the District Regulations Plan ordered to have the passage between Szalag and Donáti Streets constructed, designers have extended ir with a piazzetta to enrich and organize the world of the square evolving around the new development whilst also continuing the fabric of the city. The new complex is just as much articulated as its environment, its mass formation is both proportional and adequate, even though not because of historical imitation but via modern abstractness. A fine example of this is the articulation of the facade of the house in Szalag Street referred to as E building, which initiates a playful dialogue with the small Baroque-style dwelling-houses in its neighbourhood. Its primary materials, brick, plaster and stone facework are present in favourable proportions and are complementing exterior wooden facework so fashionable nowadays in a refined and reserved way.
I regard it as exemplary how buildings by Reimholz make themselves heard in the Castle District, assuming the location and history, without giving up themselves for a minute. In the internet-based journal epiteszforum.hu there is a fragmentary sentence quoting Reimholz: ’the spacious unity of mature works is predictable’ – yes, indeed it is now the third house which embodies maturity, spaciousness and coherence in the best sense of these words.
This is what the architect wrote apropos of the headquarters of Generali Insurance Co. in Debrecen built in a historical setting and designed by Reimholz in co-operation with János Dobai: „I am also a dedicated follower of a method which is progress by preservation requiring much care and attention to detail.” (in: Debreceni Disputa, 2004, p. 39). This definition perfectly fits Corvinus Palace too, where the new building has an undoubtedly contemporary design whilst the fabric of the city is preserved. Reimholz’s works in the Castle District appear more and more equal with those of Jože Plečnik (1872–1957), the Slovenian master who had risen to world fame some 30 years after his death owing to his city-planning activity in Ljubljana.

Építtető / client: MAHÉ Kft.
Generálkivitelezés / main contractor:  CFE Hungary Építőipari Kft.
Vezető építész / leading architect: Reimholz Péter – W6 Stúdió Kft.
Építészek / architects: Eke Zsolt, Kertész Bence, Németh Tamás, Nagy Péter – W6 Stúdió Kft.
Statika / structure: Volkai János – TM Janeda Kft.
Gépészet / installation: Sárvári Zoltán – Nusselt Bt.
Elektromos tervezés / electrical engineering: Rajkai Ferenc – Hungaroprojekt Kft.
Kerttervező / landscape: Árvai Iván – i Kertépítészeti Bt.
Közmű / publis utilities: Hrustinszky György – Drain Bt.