ROOSEVELT OFFICE BUILDING, BUDAPEST

The German owner of the former “Spinach House” was looking for architects to reconstruct the office building standing in the most valuable square of Budapest in the framework of a restricted call for tenders. We had the opportunity to participate as MSc students, and we won, beating even an American star architect (Helmut Jahn). In the planning phase, the T+S Architecture Office managed by Gábor Turányi also joined us, so the design of the façade was directed by them. The aim was to create an “A” level, 21st century building with offices for rent in the heart of the city out of an edifice constructed in the 1970s and immensely outworn since then. The architectural concept was that the former cross-shaped court would be replaced by two longitudinal courts, resulting in three wings of the building, each perpendicular to the square. This design was similar to the design that had stood there previously and to the structure of the neighbouring houses. The plans needed to heed the architectural parameters of the already existing building, so the rear of the house had a terraced structure, creating valuable roof terraces on the eastern side and a façade that faces the Basilica. It was part of the concept to reduce the mass of the already existing building to the volume of the other houses in the square, and to terminate the triple mass staircase, producing a flat façade. The two courts projected on the façade facing the square resulted in a deep “groove” on the side of the square, which divides the surface. The reconstruction was meant to preserve the existing pillar skeleton as well as the floors made of reinforced concrete complete with the concrete cores of the staircases and the lifts. This maintained raw structure had to be dressed up into 21st century clothing. Finally, the stone-covered façade with its windows engages in contact with the neighbouring houses in the square, and the waving rooftop is a modern paraphrase of the old superstructure. The design restores the disturbed and long-lacking harmony of the space walls next to the buildings of the Gresham Palace and the Ministry of the Interior.

Refurbishment and reconstruction of the Roosevelt office building, Budapest

lead architect: GÁBOR TURÁNYI
client: BHG
year of the design: 2001-2004
volume: 35 000 m²