One of the largest ongoing urban regeneration projects in Europe, Liget Budapest is set to become one of the Old Continent’s most significant cultural districts. The development covers a sizeable area surrounding Városliget, the City Park in Pest, the part of the Hungarian capital lying on the eastern bank of the Danube. It encompasses numerous sites of historical interest built during the 19th and 20th centuries, such as the famous Budapest Zoo, the Permanent Circus, Vajdahunyad Castle, containing the Museum of Agriculture, the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, and the Városligeti Ice Rink, Europe’s oldest and largest outdoor skating rink. The cultural institutions located in City Park include the Museum of Fine Arts, the Műcsarnok Kunsthalle, and the House of Music in a building designed by Sou Fujimoto and inaugurated in January 2022. The quarter’s new urban identity as a European museum hub will be further reinforced with the construction of the New National Gallery by SANAA. Another piece of the regeneration puzzle is the masterplan by Lissoni Casal Ribeiro for a mixed-use residential and office complex in the adjacent Dürer Park, where the architects have also been commissioned to design two new office buildings, together with Studio This for the interiors.
The layered context of the Dürer Park site includes several derelict buildings surrounded by monumental trees, an office tower of little architectural value, since demolished, and an early 20th-century monastery, later converted into an elementary school, now a listed building covered by preservation restrictions. Facing these constructions is a series of Art Nouveau-style villas with gardens. The arrangement of the new or converted buildings making up the masterplan takes several factors into consideration, first and foremost the conservation of the ancient trees. Office Building 1 stands on the footprint of the demolished...
Digital
Printed
It Began with Earth
Anna Heringer
In the Editorial Critique “It Began with Earth”, Anna Heringer frames earth as a regenerative, universally accessible material...
Ismaili Center Houston
Farshid Moussavi
In the Letter from America column, in Houston, USA, Farshid Moussavi Architecture designed the Ismaili Center...
Josef-Schwarz-Schule Campus
Behnisch Architekturbüro
In the Highlights column, Behnisch Architekturbüro designed the Josef-Schwarz-Schule in Heilbronn, Germany...