{"id":11184,"date":"2014-06-12T14:07:56","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T12:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meonline.hu\/?p=11184"},"modified":"2014-06-12T15:46:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T13:46:26","slug":"a-terek-szabadsaga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meonline.hu\/en\/archivum\/a-terek-szabadsaga\/","title":{"rendered":"The freedom of Spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Architecture of Metro Line 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

Architects: F\u0150MTERV \u2013 PALATIUM \u2013 UVATERV Consortium<\/strong>
\nText: Eszter G\u00f6tz <\/strong>
\nPhotos: Tam\u00e1s Bujnovszky <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"F\u0151v\u00e1m

F\u0151v\u00e1m t\u00e9r, architecture: sporaarchitects Kft., photo: Tam\u00e1s Bujnovszky<\/p><\/div>\n

It was just about the time of the opening of the new underground line of Budapest when it turned out to provide the capital with an architectural quality experienced never before. Its tracks, above-ground connections and integration into the existing public transport system of the city raises numerous questions but one thing is sure: the overwhelming majority of the deep multi-storey spaces of the stations opening up under the ground obviously offers a simply moving experience in Budapest, moreover, and to be frank, all over Europe in as much as it is unprecedented.
\nThe construction of underground stations feature a unique technology. The \u201ebox” is made \u201eup there\u201d above the ground and then lowered into its place through a shaft built especially for this purpose. Then, however, a serious cubic structure remains empty above the top of the station. It is thus logical to ask the question: What could it be used for? A most obvious solution could be to create P+R or underground car parks with different functions. However, this was not allowed by the targeted financiation acquired for this project from the EU in a contest.
\nAnd then the municipal management made a brave decision: the shafts could be left empty. Or rather filled with awe-inspiring visual experience. This is how progressive architects\u2019 teams came to join the project. Accessing the new underground one does not arrive in a traditional tube space where people rush towards the end of the whole through narrow and low channels: here multi-level and multi-storey open and transparent spaces tower above the heads of passengers. Depths and heights open up in every direction, space widens and expands below the surface as if the city regulated into a system of transportation would express its own natural freedom undergound.
\nActually, we are deep below the surface: here majestic and large arches of exposed concrete or a multi-layered net of grids strains the space above our heads keeping a delicate equilibrium between the huge weighty mass of the earth and the vast open space. The rails of the underground are already visible during arrival, the protective roof arching above them does not block the sight only provides safety. Freedom and playfulness rule here. The latter is represented by a different artistic component at each station: in Gell\u00e9rt Square it is Tam\u00e1s Komor\u00f3czki\u2019s vortical mosaic with dynamic effects, in M\u00f3ricz Zsigmond Circus it is powerful panels alternating saturated colours, in Pope Paul John Square on the lateral walls it is finely layered reliefs by Gy\u00f6rgy Jov\u00e1novics and in K\u00e1lvin Square it is the vanishing pixel tracery of the wrap-round surfaces that appear.
\nAnd what they have in common at the stops: Anna Bar\u00f3thy\u2019s poetic glass panels, the elegance and simplicity of the benches and design chairs, the reserved sets of components representing contemporary object design used in a versatile way matched with an inventive utilization of exposed concrete and last but not least the ingenuous bravados of Tam\u00e1s B\u00e1nyai\u2019s illumination designs that create generous contemporary spaces reflecting excellent tastes. All these are filtered through by spectacular solutions unknown in Hungary in situations like these featuring such intensive traffic. The spectacles of underground line No. 4 change Budapest\u2019s life from below and yet basically, affecting the visual culture of people living here. When viewed from here the city appears to have stepped into the 21st century.
\nEngineering establishments of Hungary about 100 or 150 years often generated pioneering architectural achievement as an overall tendency. Excellent examples proving this are the Chain Bridge with the Tunnel, the old and the new Elizabeth Bridge from the 1960s and the cable bridge of Bratislava built by Hungarians in the 1970s. And then there is the most recent Megyeri Bridge, the Mayfly pedestrian bridge in Szolnok, the earlier RC water tower of Margaret Island in Budapest and the more recently built water tower in Budafok. The list could be continued without changing the essence: more often than not, contemporary architecture and engineering innovation tends to go hand in hand like an unseparable tandem in projects nowadays. In underground line No. 4 the artistic image of the stations and the exposed RC structures above them \u2013 which appears to be quite contradictory to many people at first sight \u2013 are works of art now that equal and rank as integral compositions with unique overall effects and which our descendants may be as proud of as we are of the creations of engineering and architecture listed above.<\/p>\n

\"K\u00e1lvin

K\u00e1lvin t\u00e9r, architecture: Palatium St\u00fadi\u00f3 Kft., photo: Bujnovszky Tam\u00e1s<\/p><\/div>\n

A Careful Step Forward – The Underground Station of Line No. 4 Budapest<\/strong><\/p>\n

Architects: F\u0150MTERV \u2013 PALATIUM \u2013 UVATERV Consortium<\/strong>
\nText: D\u00e1vid B\u00e1n <\/strong>
\nPhotos: Tam\u00e1s Bujnovszky <\/strong><\/p>\n

The construction of underground railways in Budapest started with a promising momentum in the very last decade of the 19th century but its next more than 120 years proved to be much more bumpy. Finished on the whole in 1884, Andr\u00e1ssy Avenue preserved its integrity as designers did not allow to spoil it with an above-ground tram service system. Thus a different solution had to be found to serve the millennary exhibition opened in the City Park in 1896. This was the site where the underground system connecting Gizella (today V\u00f6r\u00f6smarty) Square and the City Park was constructed within less than 20 months as the first of its kind in continental Europe.
\nIn the first half of the 20th century several schemes were worked out in an attempt to keep pace with the dynamic development of the capital ambitioning the extension of the underground railway system \u2013 what is even more, by suitingly integrating the already existing urban sections of the railway line, much in the same way as it had been done in Berlin. These plans, however, did not prove to be viable initially because of financial restrictions and later on because of the war. In the 1950s when construction was finally launched, the technology of drilling tunnels was chosen after Soviet examples instead of the former underground. The first part of line No. 2 was opened on April 4th, 1970, after a standstill lasting almost a decade.
\nThis time the capital had elaborated a scheme integrating a total of five lines within which the present-day line No. 2 would have been extended by a feeder line towards K\u0151b\u00e1nya, line No. 3 would have covered the distance between K\u00e1poszt\u00e1smegyer to Ferihegy, whilst line No. 4 between the southern part of Buda to R\u00e1kospalota. In addition, line No. 5 was also planned to connect \u00d3buda with Kelenf\u00f6ld drawing a semi-circle on the Pest side.
\nElaborating the concept of line No. 4 was started back in 1972. Although the track had been modified several times, the main course remained unchanged. After several decades of adventurous planning, preparation and realization the line finally opened is still incomplete, and needs to be extended in both directions to fully justify its existence. However, 24 years after the opening of the last stage of underground line No. 3, the first 7 kilometres and 10 stations of line No. 4 were finished at last.
\nThe line constructed with tunnel-drilling technology runs deep all along its length without any above-ground stations. All these stations feature central platforms, and are shorter than those of the two previous lines: each is 80 m long. The line between Kelenf\u00f6ld and the Eastern railway station actually connects two railway junctions. The terminal in Buda, which promises the evolution of a genuine intermodal transport hub, integrates direct links between the railway and underground platforms, the two extreme points of the subway provide access routes to the bus and tram terminals towards the suburbs and the centre. Whilst the underpass creates high-standard connections, guiding passengers suitably to the interchanges, above the ground the situation is much more inefficient.<\/p>\n

\"M\u00f3ricz

M\u00f3ricz Zsigmond k\u00f6rt\u00e9r, architecture: Gelesz \u00e9s Lenzs\u00e9r \u00c9p\u00edt\u00e9szeti Kft., photo: Tam\u00e1s Bujnovszky<\/p><\/div>\n

Unfortunately, the Eastern Railway Station project was realised without the appropriate conversion of the surface. Whereas architects wished to transform this transport area into an urban public domain about a decade ago to create a kind of agora, the present-day solution is obviously the result of precipitance. Its single merit is that motor traffic has disappeared from the proscenium of the railway station, but the message of Baross Square has not essentially changed because of the minimal ratio of green areas, street furniture and we\u2014conceived spatial components. It is the irony of fate that the statue of Baross exiled into the background in the 1970 which had marked the centre of the square in the early 1900s was now erected once again in the el\u0151ter although this time on a curb almost completely separated from pedestrian traffic.
\nWith the exception of three, the stations of underground line connect to the surface almost unnoticed, typically to other areas used by transport or or underpasses which had been built previously. Although this design enables them to integrate into the city\u2019s fabric their accesses are almost hidden because the above-ground information systems tend to be missing opposed to those of the stations which are fairly efficient, practical and well-conceived, disregarding a few minor mistakes. The signs used to inform passengers were designed with strict consistency, and they are actually internationally used schemes which have been simply borrowed: there seems to have been no or little ambition here to create unique forms or playfulness to some extent. The names of the individual stations run along the full length of the platforms and are well visible although their lettering could have been larger. The same holds true of the inscriptions of directions and further stations. However, there are also some fresh design components integrated in the sceheme such as the two different colours showing the safety lanes in two directions and the light strips that flash to inform of the arrival of a train.<\/p>\n

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\n <\/span><\/p>\n

General design:
\nF\u0150MTERV \u2013 PALATIUM \u2013 UVATERV Konzorcium
\nArchitecture: Bal\u00e1zs Csap\u00f3, Zolt\u00e1n Er\u0151, \u00c1d\u00e1m Veres, Zolt\u00e1n T\u00f3th, L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Rom\u00e1n, Zolt\u00e1n Zork\u00f3czy, Kl\u00e1ra Szil\u00e1gyi, Jovanovi\u0107 Biljana \u2013 PALATIUM M4 Projekt Kft.<\/strong>
\nClient: BKV Zrt. DBR Metr\u00f3 Projektigazgat\u00f3s\u00e1g<\/strong>
\nProjekt management: EUROMETRO Kft., BKK K\u00f6z\u00fat ZRt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Kelenf\u00f6ld-\u0150rmez\u0151:
\nPALATIUM St\u00fadi\u00f3 Kft. \u2013 Zolt\u00e1n Er\u0151, M\u00e1t\u00e9 Antal, D\u00f3ra Br\u00fcckner, Zsolt Kosztol\u00e1nyi
\nVPI \u00c9p\u00edt\u00e9sz Kft. \u2013 P\u00e9ter Istv\u00e1n Varga, Erzs\u00e9bet Kardos-Karst, Mikl\u00f3s Markos
\nSZABOTAR Bt. \u2013 Tibor Tardos <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t