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Bánáti + Hartvig Architecture Office

Architect

Bánáti Béla, Hartvig Lajos

Company

Bánáti + Hartvig Építész Iroda Kft.

Designed in

2019—2020

Built in

2021

Address

1117 Budapest, Fehérvári út 38

Prizes

Budapest Award of Architectural Excellence, special mention, 2021

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The high-quality, spare design building, located on the inner section of Fehérvári út, is a good example of both functional operation and the community-forming power inherent in rehabilitation. Here a former ‘100 Forintos’ discount store became an office island of tranquility, making use of both the basement level and the roof terrace.

The relocated entrance, the transparent glass windows allowing passers-by to observe the inner operation, the public spaces in the basement, the meeting rooms and a model-making workroom have created a workspace that greatly helps teamwork and conveys a sense of Scandinavian lifestyle, coziness, and harmony. The reinforced concrete slab, which was opened to accommodate the staircase and to show it naturalistically, the built-in untreated stainless-steel columns, the interior revealing the ceiling insulation and building service installations, the glass façade portal recycled as a meeting-room wall are all talking not about cheapness, but about simplicity, Puritanism, and architectural beauty. Now the office appearing in this area upgrades an environment that has been going run-down in the last few decades. The reinterpretation of the building presents a wealth of means that architects can achieve with an understanding reconstruction of existing, originally low-quality buildings. In many cases (as it is now), this can add much more to social good than starting a construction from scratch.

Project leader

Kiss Noémi

Interior designer

Sárosdi-Mádi Krisztina, Szlovák János, Móder Edit, Varga Márton, MádiLáncos Studio Építésziroda Kft.

Garden and landscape design

Györe Viola

architectural assistants

Lőcsei Vera, Sánta Bendegúz

Interior design assistants

Balogh Lantos Stefánia, MádiLáncos Studio Építésziroda Kft.

Structural engineering

Kovács Csaba, Trombitás Bálint, Reticolo Kft.