The Vizafogó Park and pavilion building in the 13th District won the Budapest Architectural Award this year, the Mayor's Office of Budapest told MTI on Friday. The designers of the Attila 99 Loft apartment house, the KOZMO hotel and condominium apartments built in the former Józsefváros Telephone Centre, the surface arrangement of Bakáts Square and the connecting streets, the A15 villa and the Budafoki Zöldike Nursery received praise.

The competition launched by the Budapest City Council in July and managed by the Budapest Chamber of Architects allowed applications for works that improve the architectural image of the capital or the appearance of a district. The work could be a new or rehabilitated building, structure, public space, or interior space.

Vizafogó Park was handed over in the spring of 2022 (Photo: budapest13.hu)

The lake and the pavilion building on Vizafogó (Photo: Balázs Danyi/Archikon)

Csaba Nagy and Károly Pólus, the designers of the Vizafogó Park and pavilion building in the 13th District, were awarded the Budapest Architecture Award, and landscape architects János Hómann and Máté Pécsi created a public park from a plot originally intended for development, which significantly improves the quality of life of the residents of the area.

"The lake created by the landscaping of the plot, the pavilion building by the lake is closed by a fence and cannot be visited at night, thus the operation is similar to the English square system, the well-selected vegetation, the ground well irrigation system and the public park functions created by community probing have resulted in such a well-formed oasis in terms of landscape architecture and architecture created in the urban jungle, which makes the area of Vizafogó a better place and enhances its value", was highlighted in its praise.

They put it this way: "the area that was transformed from an industrial area into an area intended for development and then into a public park is a story that Budapest can gladly and proudly tell anyone, and which will be a credit to its designers and clients."

The designer of the Attila 99 Loft apartment house is Tibor Dékány and Ádám Hatvani. The building is a strange mixture of a civilian residential building and an industrial loft. "The designers carefully preserved and developed the character of the original house, the architectural details and structural solutions," they praised.   

The former Józsefváros Telephone Centre in 2022 (Photo: Tímea Simon)

Gergely Draskóczy and Gabriella Mészáros designed the KOZMO hotel and condominium apartments in the former Józsefváros Telephone Centre building. According to the praise, there was a promising intervention from the point of view of urban development, "cleaning up the floor plan of the building, which was almost hopelessly rebuilt during the subsequent renovations, and bringing it closer to its original state was a good decision."

"Bakáts Square has become an important and good example of inner-city public space rehabilitation," they wrote, praising the work of landscape architects István Steffler and György Szloszjár, adding that the final and implemented plans contain less representation, more significant traffic calming and more greenery, which overall makes it calmer, more charming, and more humanised, and in its street view, they turn the location into a high aesthetic quality.

The Parish Church of Saint Francis of Assisi on the renewed Bakáts Square (Photo: Róbert Juharos/pestbuda.hu)

A15 Villa in Zugliget was designed by Katalin Fazekas and Árpád Vilics. According to the praise, the building suggests harmony: its installation, space occupation, and modesty are exemplary. The judges praised the rational layout of the Budafoki Zöldike Nursery designed by Csaba Nagy and Károly Pólus, which is paired with a sensitive interior design concept. They wrote that the designers' attitude covering every detail sets an example to follow for future designers of spaces intended for small children.

Similar to previous years, the committee awarded those outstanding ideas and concepts that are worthy of the city's past, define its present and provide answers to the challenges of the future. The awards were presented on Friday in Budapest, at the FUGA Budapest Architectural Centre, where an exhibition of the works submitted to the competition opened.

The designers of the building who won the Architectural Award received a commemorative plaque, and the designers who were praised received a certificate in addition to the monetary reward.

Source: MTI

Cover photo: The Vizafogó Park and pavilion building won this year's Budapest Architecture Award (Photo: budapest13.hu)