In This City Special, Frame Heads to Budapest to Check out the Swiftly Advancing Design Scene
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Best of BUDAPEST In this city special, Frame heads to Budapest to check out the swiftly advancing design scene. Photos Tamás Bujnovszky Budapest 132 Best of BUDAPEST Budapest In this city special, Frame heads to Budapest 133 to check out the swiftly advancing design scene. Budapest by Numbers 1873 A city full of history is Budapest’s two sides – BUDA and PEST, separated by the River Danube ready for the future. – merge to become one city FACTS AND FIGURES AND FACTS 1877 NYUGATI STATION, 1845 an icon of European railway József Hild designs ST STEPHEN’S architecture, is completed BASILICA; construction begins six years later Budapest UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES: Buda Castle district, banks of the Danube, and Andrássy Avenue 130 THERMAL SPRINGS feed the city’s spas 134 525 km2, CITY AREA 1.73million, POPULATION in 2011 2 million in 1991 1931 1880 2004 FIGURES AND FACTS MOHOLY-NAGY UNIVERSITY Budapest-born Ernő Goldfinger Hungary joins the OF ART AND DESIGN founded designs the ENTAS CHAIR EUROPEAN UNION (as the Hungarian Royal Institute of Arts and Crafts) 1896 MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS, 1989 designed by Ödön Lechner THE THIRD HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC and Gyula Pártos, is built is established Budapest udapest is inspiring – just ask Swiss lobby – with its soaring dome of light – Nagy Àruhàz (Paris Department Store), architect Peter Zumthor. Before is particularly stunning. a 1911 design by Zsigmond Sziklai. This, 135 Bdesigning the now revered Therme Elsewhere in the city, along the Margit too, was recently renovated and is now Vals in his native land, he visited the körút ring road, Budapest flaunts its open to the public. Turkish baths in Budapest. The lineage of classical-modern side. It was here that In the last few years, however, his design is clear; the blue lighting scheme Lajos Kozma realized the Atrium cinema in contemporary design – rather than over the main pool – and, in fact, the entire 1935, with its red-glazed walls, mirrored renovations of historical buildings – is atmosphere of the space – is reminiscent pillars and round Art-Deco lamps. Two shifting into focus. Just look at Menza, a of the Rudas Baths in Budapest. Built in years later – and a few doors down – restaurant on Liszt Ferenc Square by 1566, the Rudas Baths were renovated architects Hofstätter and Domány built an THEYCOM Art & Architecture, or Göske seven years ago, but the main rooms elegant residence with two curved-glass Project’s space-age Capsula store on remain in their original state. lifts whose cabins move like pneumatic swank Andrássy Avenue. It seems Over the years, many thermal baths in post tubes. Architectural pearls can be Budapest is ready to focus on the future, the capital have been rebuilt. Hungaria found beyond the city centre, too. Standing but when you’ve had enough, do take a tip Bad, a bathhouse in the city’s Jewish on Ildikó Square in Kelenföld – a faceless, from Zumthor and slip into the Rudas quarter that Emil Ágoston designed in socialist-era housing estate – is the Baths for a well-deserved break. 1907, stood empty for decades until it was high-tech church that István Szabó revived in 2010 by Continental Hotel Zara. designed in 1981. Words Peter Sägesser The reconstruction of the listed Art- In a city well known for its coffee Nouveau gem received a clutch of houses, one of the most architecturally architecture prizes, and the majestic intriguing examples lies within the Pàrisi SHOPPING Budapest 136 off by striking angular elements. angular striking by off set are space the throughout volumes and lines Fluid A wall of teardrop-like display units is based on the store's logo. SHOPPING Budapest subtle but sophisticated way. The solution was to avoid bright colours and go for black and white, always a Göske Project showcases winning combination.’ Korompay and Gocsei chose to keep high-end fashion as objets not only the original proportions of the space intact but also two eclectic pairs of columns that had been part of the interior d’art at CAPSULA. as they found it. They enlivened the vast unadorned surfaces of the free-flowing ocated in a historical building in retail environment with several striking Budapest, the recently opened details. Walls with sweeping curves inject LCapsula store offers shoppers a the space with an interesting dynamic 137 select collection of high-end fashion labels. while housing niches of various sizes for Two Hungarian architects, Eniko Korompay displaying clothes and accessories. and Sandor Gocsei of Göske Project, The architects were also responsible tackled the difficult task of creating an for the logo, a single letter ‘a’ in the form integrated look while individually of a fat teardrop, which turned out to be showcasing Tom Ford, Givenchy, D&G, such a typographical success that its Armani, YSL, Blumarine and Cesare shape became the basis for a whole wall Paciotti. They opted for a calm yet bright irregularly patterned with dozens of interior with vast flowing forms and display niches for bags, shoes and other lustrous surfaces. small items. ‘We aimed for distinct forms and a All in all, the gallery-like interior of pure palette that would allow the clothing Capsula – with its aesthetically designed in these hand-picked collections to stand display solutions, dramatic lighting and out,’ says Korompay. ‘We could have fascinating focal points – can be compared designed a more stunning environment for to an exhibition venue for works of art. _ Dolce & Gabbana, but it wouldn’t have goskeproject.hu been suitable for the more classic pieces in, say, an Armani collection. We had to find Words Brigitta Bugya a way to present the merchandise in a Students built a contemporary interpretation of a wedding tent for pop-up store NANUSHKA. SHOPPING Budapest Organic materials and natural shapes defined a pop-up store for Hungarian fashion designer Szandra Sándor. 138 zandra Sándor, the young Hungarian of five undergraduates: Dániel Baló, Zsófi they hung the fabric. The result was an fashion designer behind the Dobos, Judit Emese Konopás, Dóra unconventional interpretation of the SNanushka collection, jumped at the Medveczky and Noémi Varga. The team tent concept.’ chance to open a prominently located had just five days to come up with a The forest served as the main source pop-up store that would welcome shoppers suitable design and an additional two of inspiration for the floor, which had to be for a period of only four months. She weeks to turn it into reality. as inexpensive as the material used for wanted the available space to reflect the The existing space combined a walls and ceiling. The solution was timber brand’s style, but the transformation she promise of elegance with a rather cold in the form of firewood that was cut, planed envisioned had to be realized in a very ambience. Wrapping the interior in and arranged ‘on end’ in a pebble-like short time with very little money. And when inexpensive natural materials struck pattern. Complementing the flooring were the pop-up store eventually closed its Sándor as a good idea. ‘The original space logs in clusters of varying heights, which doors, Sándor had to return the premises did not conform to my concept. Covering became display units for folded garments to the owner intact. Any installation all visible surfaces seemed to be the only and accessories. _ inserted into the space had to be easy option,’ she says. ‘Among the inspirational to remove. images I’d gathered for the interior design Words Brigitta Bugya Her solution was to enlist the help of was a wedding tent, which led to the idea architecture students. The search for the of draping fabric on walls and ceiling. The ideal team ended with the careful selection students crafted an irregular grid on which Csendes combines the ruin-pub concept with that of a stylish bistro. Below: Sufni G'art'n in Budapest’s District VII. NIGHTLIFE Budapest It’s been a decade since the first RUIN PUB appeared in Budapest. Has the underground phenomenon finally run its course? round the turn of the millennium, furniture and objects picked up here and young creatives discovered Pest’s there – has a flea market-meets-cave- Jewish quarter – between the city’s meets-carnival aesthetic. A 139 elegant Andràssy and Rákóczi Avenues Budapest is now home to around a – and its crumbling, abandoned houses. dozen romkocsmak, but the scene is in a Clubs and bars began to appear in the state of flux. Some buildings are being buildings and their courtyards: venues renovated, existing clubs are closing, and for concerts, DJs, art exhibitions and new bars are emerging. Recent additions, film screenings. Csendes and Jelen, combine the ruin-pub The first romkocsma (Hungarian for concept with that of a fashionable bistro. ‘ruin pub’, a term denoting Budapest bars It seems ruin pubs have had their that occupy tenements and factories heyday. Government-enforced regulations marked for demolition) was Szimpla, which – shorter opening hours, lower noise opened in 2001 on Kertész Street. Soon tolerance and nonsmoking laws – and the similar spots began to pop up in the Jewish actual ‘design’ of new spaces indicate the quarter and beyond, in old houses, cinemas loss of the genuine romkocsma’s informal and warehouses. atmosphere. A new generation is now All ruin pubs are based on the same discovering different types of venues to concept. The buildings are not renovated annex: old-fashioned coffee salons and but left in the shabby state in which they cellar bars. _ are found. With only minimal intervention, romkocsmak.hu they’re transformed from derelict to inhabitable. The décor – a mix of existing Words Peter Sägesser Credit for much of Budapest’s nightlife scene goes to 81FONT.