Excursion
The New and The Timeless in Budapest
Bánáti + Hartvig Architecture: own workplace/new office building, 2021
© Photograph: Tamás Bujnovszky
A 3-day exploration of the city: when Budapest was the fastest growing metropolis on the continent (ca. 1880-1914), examples of modern architecture from the 1930s and '70s, and also contemporary projects, such as Sou Fujimoto's House of Music in City Park and other exemplary Hungarian (landscape) architecture projects.
Our focus is on areas that characterise Budapest: Transport infrastructure (from Gustav Eiffel’s Budapest Nyugati station to the metro stations of the new M4 line), historic industrial areas and their adaptation and redevelopment, the local bath culture, the special natural context with the river in the middle of the city, natural islands, rocks and thermal springs. And there is a focus on the synagogues, which are no longer to be seen in Vienna. Otto Wagner’s Rumbach Synagogue, which fell into disrepair for decades, is now accessible once again following its renovation. Recent competitions have resulted in innovative winning projects by Snøhetta, Grimshaw, Sanaa, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and others. While these are still awaiting realisation, buildings and interventions in public spaces have recently been created by Budapest-based architects that are providing new impetus for the architecture sector and for the city. Experts from the contemporary Hungarian architecture centre KÉK accompany us to contribute their critiques and their background knowledge.
With:
János Klaniczay, KÉK
Tamás König, Architekt
Csaba Nagy, Bence Dobos, Bianka Varga, Archikon architects
Gergely Fernezelyi and Imre Szücs, FBIS architects
Dominika Tihanyi, Újirány / New Directions Landscape architects
Moderated by: Maria Welzig, Az W