Residential building / Lakóház
Budapest, Futó 20 str / utca
This was the first building project of the investor in Futó Street, so he defined very tough requirements for us in terms of the utilization of the building site, making our task even more difficult by restricting the range of building materials to be used. The most important basic principle adopted in the jointly elaborated design program was to build modern, affordable homes that meet today's requirements.
I and my colleagues expressed the view that the most important goal of renewing the building was to signify the revival of the neighborhood. I wanted to make sure that the building would take a worthy place at the juncture point of the newly created space, and its spaces - its courtyard, staircase, apartments - would offer up-to-date circumstances to residents. The building should go beyond "the modernism of housing estates" in an architectural sense in a way that it should present the magic of present-day architecture that can create a special atmosphere, and the articulation of its frontage and mass should establish a link with the neighboring - old and new - buildings. The building was designed for an important location, the site at the corner bounded by Futó Street and Nap Street. The new buildings emerging in the inner quarters of the city should satisfy increased needs, as the frontal proportions and the rich details of the neighboring buildings originating in the end of the 19th century are in sharp contrast with the proportions of the new building produced by the program and with the simplicity of details deriving from the application of modern architectural forms. The building plot connects the neighboring old building in Nap Street with the new building in Futó Street.
When designing the mass of the building, I mostly took into consideration the connection to the two neighboring buildings and the key corner position to be occupied. After completing the first drafts for the design of the building's mass it became clear to me that the mass to be designed was significantly larger that the mass of the neighboring buildings. Therefore, we decided to make the house more plastic by breaking its mass further down, and marked out its most important points: retail stores in the first floor opening to the square, the two entrances and the corner of the building.
The organization of the structure of the building took place concurrently with designing its mass. The vertical passage axes were placed at two juncture points of the U-shaped structure. The staircases and the related entrance halls were designed as important elements of the building, since these spaces connect the community and the private spaces to each other. We designed connecting spaces that meet these demands and offer a special experience of arriving home to residents.
The apartments can be accessed through horizontal passages. At the same time, the ground plan structure created by reinterpreting the traditional notion of "outside balcony" made it possible to build high-quality back apartments opening to the yard. The open but structured inner yard has a visual relation with other green areas of the inside of the block. 50% of the cars were placed inside the building complex in underground garages.
The character of the frontage was meant to strengthen the architectural concept of the building's mass. The design of the frontage is one of the greatest challenges in the case of designing buildings in inner city quarters. The frontage system of houses built at the end of the 19th century is defined by a size structure deriving from the inner space structure - large clearance and wide cell size - and the tectonic decoration of the vertical surface thus created. When approaching the building, I have the feeling that an observer can always find interesting architectural details in the building, and that the building radiates a sense of friendly intimacy.
Alföldi György: Budapest-Józsefváros, Futó utca 20. - Nap utca 32-34. lakóépület.; ÉPÍTÉSZFÓRUM 2004:(nov. 23) pp. *-1. (2004)
József Kolossa: Obytny dom v rehabilitovanom území; ARCH 2006:(10) p. 52-53; ISSN 1335-3268;
Designers / Tervezők : Rév8 Zrt, fusion architects
Design team / Tervező csapat: Alföldi György, Bach Péter, Márk Péter, Millasin Gergely, Nyitray Tünde, Vannay Miklós Ágoston építészek/architects, Andorka Tibor statika/structure, E. Seres Edit gépészet/engineering, Somogyi Gábor épületvillamoság/electricity.
Client / Építtető: OTP Ingatlan Rt.
Built surface / Beépített m2: 4900 m2
Building cost / Építési költség: 1,95 mEuro
Photos: Tóth Kornél
