{"id":2531,"date":"2010-09-18T13:20:26","date_gmt":"2010-09-18T11:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meonline.hu\/?p=2531"},"modified":"2010-11-11T10:47:11","modified_gmt":"2010-11-11T09:47:11","slug":"rekonstrukcio-es-megidezes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meonline.hu\/en\/archivum\/rekonstrukcio-es-megidezes\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconstruction and Invocation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hung\u00e1ria Baths \u2013 Continental Hotel Zara<\/strong><\/p>\n

Architects: P\u00e9ter Heged\u0171s, \u00c1gnes Boly\u00f3
\nText: P\u00e9ter Haba
\nPhotos: D\u00e1niel Cser, Tam\u00e1s Bujnovszky<\/p>\n

The famous swimming hall of Hung\u00e1ria Baths in Pest \u2013 or at least what has been preserved of it \u2013 was given a facelift after a period of decay lasting more than 40 years: the site of the complex with a past of 190 years was treated as an issue of prestige by the investor constructing a hotel whilst also restoring this outstanding monument of Art Nouveau architecture in Budapest as authentic as possible.<\/p>\n

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As a result of careful protection a constituent of the city\u2019s fabric important not only for architecture, but also for cultural history has been reborn. Designers, however, did not intend to make us forget the shocking destructions of the past decades with the spectacle of the reborn torso or to present it as a memento, a conserved relic or a frozen historic \u201edocument\u201d. This principle \u2013 as we shall see \u2013 also defined the principles of reonstruction and the methodology of restoring details.
\nIn 1827 Andr\u00e1s Gamperl, a merchant specialized in silk opened his bath on the site bordered by Doh\u00e1ny, Klauz\u00e1l, Wessel\u00e9nyi and Ny\u00e1r Streets. Remodelled and extended decade by decade, the institution was divided into two main parts: the stone and steam baths opening from Ny\u00e1r Street and the public baths accessible from Klauz\u00e1l Street. In 1897 the complex was purchased by the Ringer brothers who immediately started a large-scale development. They also bought the house at No. 44. Doh\u00e1ny Street in 1906 to construct a large imposing swimming hall on the site. The new wing was completed in 1908\u20131909 after designs by Emil \u00c1goston. This building was only used for a little more than ten years in its original function, as in the 1920s it was purchased by a bank and remodelled as a movie theatre. The building on the corner of Klauz\u00e1l and Doh\u00e1ny Streets was demolished to be replaced by an Art Deco-style residential building designed by L\u00e1szl\u00f3 V\u00e1g\u00f3 (1928\u20131929). This was the time when the house on the corner of Doh\u00e1ny and Ny\u00e1r Streets was developed into a hotel named Continental. From the 1950s on the swimming pool was used as a theatre and from the mid-1960s the other wings of the building were more and more neglected. On the closure of the hotel in 1970 also the fate of the baths was sealed.
\nThe conditions of the precious house did not only deteriorate when they were abandoned, but also after their sale in 1996: after the demolitions following the \u201esudden deterioration\u201d and \u201erapid crumblings\u201d in 2002-2003 the hotel almost totally disappeared and only the staircase section and the main facade towards Doh\u00e1nyStreet was preserved of the swimming hall to be included among protected monuments in 2005. The ruins and the site had new owners later on: in 2009 Zeina Hotel Ltd. started constructing the hotel here. The investor commissioned Petur St\u00fadi\u00f3 Bt with the architectural tasks with P\u00e9ter Heged\u0171s as the designer in charge of the project (for the new hotel buildings) and P\u00e9ter V\u00e9kony (the reconstruction of the old wing). The new hotel wings flank the old one: one of them is located on the site of the former Hotel Continental, whilst the other replaces the baths building behind the tenement house designed by V\u00e1g\u00f3 (at No. 6. Klauz\u00e1l Street). There are six storeys above the ground floor of the buildings completed with two levels of underground garages on both lots.
\nThe gateway of the former bath hall functions now as the main entrance, whilst the business entrance opens from the facades in Ny\u00e1r Street and that of the staff in Klauz\u00e1l Street. Replacing Hotel Continental and adjusting to its developmental structure and proportions, the new building embraces a cortile with a restaurant on the ground floor open also towards the street: it has an entrance on the corner where that of the hotel had been. The wing in Klauz\u00e1l Street with also access to the cortile houses conference rooms on the ground floor. The planes of the facade of the new structure on the sixth floor are receeded to have enough room for the roof terraces belonging to the apartmants. The gallery of the Art Nouveau-style wing functions as an imposing bar of the hotel topped with rooms from the second floor up, whilst the top level houses the wellness department immediately above the original roofing.
\nThe wing on the corner of Doh\u00e1ny and Ny\u00e1r Streets as well as the facades of the block in Klauz\u00e1l Street are defined by a raster of simple rectangles. However, the window frames evoke the stone blocks projecting in a random fashion from the facade designed by Emil \u00c1goston, enhancing the sculpturesque quality of the spectacle. The facade toward Ny\u00e1r Street gradually receedes in the direction of the neighbouring lower house to round off the junction of the two buildings. The emphasis of the corner is accentuated by the band of reclining openings turning over and the projecting constituent of the roof level with a glass partition.
\nThe most luckily rich archive photo collection played a key role in the reconstruction of the Art Nouveau-style building torso \u2013 the original designs have been lost, just like the majority of the decorative elements applied onto the exterior stone surfaces and the interior structures. Relying upon the fragments and the photographs, the metal components were reproduced (such as the riveted flower-stands, flag poles, protective grilles and the reliefs of scenes with animals in the horizontal dividing band of the set of windows in the centre and the metal gate with revolving doors). The central part of the entablature crowning the facade as well as the majority of the ceramic tiles with animal motifs below and the triangular gable above were destroyed when the roof level was divided \u2013 this project restored all of them. Based on the surviving two lateral pieces and the photographs, the ceramic relief series were also restored just like the eosin-glazed \u201eHung\u00e1ria Baths\u201d sign and the ceramic inserts of the consoles supporting the cornice above the gate. The stone relief above the gate \u2013 probably representing bathing characters of the antique mythology associated with the symbolism of water \u2013 was also reconstructed with due care,whilst the totally lost glazed tiling had to be reproduced. The wings of the metal gate as well as the reliefs above them are all reconstructions: the ornamentation of the former is associated with the four seasons and Jewish symbolism, whilst the latter are also compositions related to water and bathing.
\nThe Art Nouveau-style building part is perilious, the new core of communication was constructed to replace the irreparable staircase and thus the original structure of the tract could be preserved unchanged. Only one section of the space of the former swimming pool has come down to us: actually it is a fragment of a pillar section joining the staircase. The two lateral stairways starting from the former foyer and leading to the gallery have also been restored and reconstructed in details just like the roofing above the gallery resembling a barrel-vault with its ceramic inserts and geometric ornamentation. However, the balustrade of the gallery is the architects\u2019 invention: it was designed in line with the forms of the building and based on the designs of balustrades by Emil \u00c1goston found in other buildings. Several details of the ground-floor part of the flight of stairs have been adjusted to the new function. The swimming hall was partly reconstructed: the original was restored to three pillars\u2019 depth graced with mosaics together with the ornate metal-covered timber blocking and coloured glass vaulting above them. Based on archive photos also the relief tondo series narrating the story of Amor and Psyche was reproduced. Other pillar sections of the hall have been replaced by a concrete structure on the cortile of the hotel evoking the proportions and basic forms of the space \u2013 the two different types of architectural solutions are separated by a glass partition fixed to one of the pairs of pillars cutting the tondos and their decoration into two whilst marking deliberately what is \u201enon-original\u201d. The vaulting of the exterior structure is replaced by wires for creepers. Proceeding in the direction of the cortile from the entrance within the space of the swimming hall one can witness a peculiar kind of transition: firstly a reconstruction as authentic as conditions allowed (even though some of the details are free interpretations), and then the reconstructions of forms and structures lost (still closely following the architecture and ornamentation by Emil \u00c1goston), and finally the reduced \u201einstallation\u201d evoking the spatial form completes the overall impression. It appears as if we were advancing from the concrete and factual towards the non-concrete, the genuine to the d\u00e9cor, as if the old rich in craftsmanship-quality details would gradually vanish to be replaced by the much more unimaginative and mechanized architectural world of the hotel. This concept of course raises a number of questions, primarily because of the contact and visual \u201eoverlap\u201d or shift of the hotel exposed via the glass partition and the reconstructed or evoked building parts.
\nThe reconstruction presents a whole series of surprises: the extremely stripped-off building has revealed an extraordinarily rich and mysterious world of fine and applied arts blending naive narration and lush eroticism. Although it appears somewhat confused iconographically and stylistically, this is the reason why it could reflect mundane and probably frolic freedom evoking the bath culture of the early 20th century in a sensitive way. <\/p>\n

Design: Petur Studi\u00f3 Bt.
\nArchitects: Heged\u0171s P\u00e9ter, Boly\u00f3 \u00c1gnes
\nMonument reconstruction: V\u00e9kony P\u00e9ter, Weiszhaupt Vikt\u00f3ria \u2013 nirmana \u00e9p\u00edt\u00e9sziroda kft.
\nInterior design: V\u00f6r\u00f6s Vir\u00e1g, S\u00e1fr\u00e1ny Csilla \u2013 StudioLoft Kft. (sz\u00e1lloda), F\u00fcl\u00f6p Krisztina \u2013 nirmana \u00e9p\u00edt\u00e9sziroda kft. (m\u0171eml\u00e9ki terek), Fejes Gerg\u0151 \u2013 Plusdesign Studio Kft. (\u00e9tterem)
\nLandscape: Tihanyi Dominika, Kov\u00e1cs \u00c1rp\u00e1d \u2013 UILandscapdeArchitects Kft.
\nStructure: Sur\u00e1nyi Gy\u00f6rgy, Zajzon Judit \u2013 M. Plan Kft.
\nInstallation: Szab\u00f3 Levente \u2013 Deraplan Kft.
\nElectrical engineering: Kov\u00e1cs Zsuzsanna \u2013 Interh\u00e1z Tech Bt.
\nMonument reconstruction: Bor Ferenc m\u0171v\u00e9szett\u00f6rt\u00e9n\u00e9sz, Hajdi M\u00e1rta \u00e9p\u00edt\u00e9szm\u00e9rn\u00f6k, Ga\u00e1l Endre \u00fcvegm\u0171v\u00e9sz restaur\u00e1tor, So\u00f3s L\u00e1szl\u00f3\tk\u0151, ker\u00e1mia restaur\u00e1tor, Gy\u00f6rffy \u00c1d\u00e1m farestaur\u00e1tor, Doncsev Antoni \u00e9s Saj\u00f3 \u00c1kos f\u00e9mrestaur\u00e1torok, P\u00e1hi Attila f\u00e9m-\u00f6tv\u00f6s restaur\u00e1tor, Herling Zsuzsanna fest\u0151-restaur\u00e1tor, Csajb\u00f3k Csaba \u00e9p\u00edt\u00e9szm\u00e9rn\u00f6k, Zeke L\u00e1szl\u00f3 stukk\u00f3 munk\u00e1k \u2013 H-Y Kft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t