Architect: JUHÁSZ Ákos
The multi-hall cinema, connected to the Új Udvar Shopping Centre (today Buda Entertainment & Gastro) has been designed adjusted to the architecture of the complex, but deliberately with a different articulation. Instead of the usual, enclosed group of cinema halls located in the middle of a large building, a real house has been built in Óbuda, which can be flooded by sunshine, where you can look out to the hills and the sky from the interior.
The multi-hall cinema is directly connected to the Új Udvar Shopping Centre, designed by Miklós Marosi/KÖZTI and opened in 1998. The authorities specified that the former, triple division of the plot had to be presented in the architectural design. Bécsi Road broadens into a small square in front of the cinema and this has suggested a unified and integrated solution to the facade. The size of the cinema halls opening to Bécsi Road are projected on the facade, corresponding to each former building plot with their slightly turned walls. The roof of uniform height and pitch is also adjusted to this principle with its slight divisions. Unlike the shopping centre, the cinema has a homogeneous, plastered facade instead of brick cladding, designed with an abstract arrangement of the openings. The building fits well into the small-town ambience of the protected neighbourhood. There is a parking garage in the basement for nearly 200 cars, but the neighbouring underground garage is also accessible from there.
It was not easy to coordinate the geometry of the halls, designed on the basis of strict projection requirements, and connect them with the floors of the shopping centre and the street levels, to provide barrier-free escape routes. The extraordinary number and volume of the mechanical installations and piping had to be accomodated so, that they should not be dominating in the house. The mechanical installations have remained hidden in spite of the strict limitations of the building height; the roof has been saved from openings and the paved terrace on the first floor does not have any mechanical equipment, either. The double-storey entrance hall creates a connection between the public areas, the corridors running in several directions and the outside world. It is a transit area, where the city’s macrocosm meets the films’ microcosm. The interior architect has succeeded in taming the developers’ often extravagant ideas and he has created a high quality and cosy interior, despite its VIP character, using glass, granite, wood, colours and smart lighting solutions.
The cinema had been used in its original form for five years, then later, after a change of ownership, it was converted. It has been operating as an event venue since then.
Location: Budapest III., Bécsi út 46–50. Built: 2001 Architect: JUHÁSZ Ákos Associate architect: SEBŐ István Interior architect: MÁTÉ Tibor (Mérték Stúdió) Area: 9000 m2
