Architect: MAROSI Miklós
The office building had to be fit into a vacant lot located in a narrow street. The street front of the building is set back from the border of the plot so the airspace ratio of the street has improved. The two facades of the building have been built in a low-key, elegant style of good quality, durable materials, adjusted to the neighbouring buildings.
The National Transport Authority commissioned KÖZTI in 1997 to prepare a preliminary study for the building, but the design was not continued at that time. When the commission restarted in 2004, the designers were surprised to realize that the market value of the neighbourhood had risen considerably and the building code had changed; a new design program was required. The building regulations specified that the new building had to fit into the continuous row of neighbouring buildings in Ipoly Street and the large fire walls had to be hidden, the open rectangle formed by the buldings of the surrounding plots had to be practically closed. There is the Kleopátra House across, in Ipoly Street, the western neighbour is a six-storey residential building and the eastern neighbour is another six-storey building, set back from the street line by five meters. The longitudinal axis of the building site is orientated from north to south. A three-storey kindergarten building is located within the area surrounded by the neighbouring buildings.
The building has been adjusted to the neighbouring firewalls in Ipoly Street, with the same building height and roof pitch. The building consists of two basement levels, a ground floor and six upper floors, the seventh floor houses the ventilation and air-conditioning units. The basement covers the whole area of the plot and basically functions as a parking garage for cars, but there are also rooms for the utilities, mechanical and sanitary units. There is a roof garden above the basement. The building has a central corridor with cellular offices and executive rooms near the floor entrances. The toilet blocks, the meeting rooms, the kitchenettes and the lunchrooms are centrally located. The public areas with high circulation of visitors are located close to the entrance. The client defined the required level of quality as between average and deluxe. Accordingly, durable and good quality materials, structures and finishes have been used, which are suitable for the functional and quality requirements. The building has two facades which have been designed with consideration to the low-key neighbourhood. The large firewall of the adjacent building has been completely hidden; owing to the significant set back of the facade from the street line, the airspace ratio of the narrow street has improved. Two characteristic elements of the facades are the light coloured limestone cladding and the transparent aluminium-glass curtain wall. The cladding stops at different height on the columns which result in an interesting interplay of the two materials. Not long before the building was completed, it had been taken away from the original client by a ministerial decree and it was given to the Global Service Centre of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The new organization found the the premises suitable for its operations without any changes.
Location: Budapest, XIII. Ipoly utca 5/B,C,D Built: 2007 Architect: MAROSI Miklós Associate architect: ÁCS István Area: 10,210 m2
