START UP OFFICE BUILDING, BUDAPEST

The worldwide acknowledged software house wished to find the architect for designing the main entrance front building of the info-park developed by them in a two-round restricted call for design tenders. By now, Graphisoft Park has become an emblematic place of collection in the field of modern high-quality Hungarian architecture. The site of the design is the main entrance of the plot, and the aim is to construct an iconic building, which can serve as a symbol, referring to the IT work accomplished there. Our plan proposed a light, completely transparent, deliberately contemporary glass building, which purposefully diverts from the neighbouring brick buildings and the modern tradition represented by them. This house is to function as a reception building, sending a message primarily to the external world by its architectural gestures but also seeking harmony with the natural environment surrounding it. This is the reason for setting a taut bronze net in front of the glass of the upper storeys in order to provide external shading but, at the same time, to allow the people working inside to see the garden. The ground floor is completely transparent, hosting the front hall, a café, and a conference room. Spectators can constantly see the vegetation from the internal rooms, thus the border between inside and outside is blurred. The general upper storeys will host the office rooms for rent whereas the roof level is a reconstructed penthouse office level with huge terraces facing the trees and the sky. The segmented mass of the building aims at fitting it into its environment harmoniously, as the varied form dissolves in the organic woods embracing it, while the water evaporating from an outside ornamental pool creates a pleasant microclimate on the southern side. Under the building, an underground garage park will be produced to lodge the cars of the people working here. Heat for the building comes from by ground-source heat pumps, the house is constructed with mass temperature adjustment, and air is circulated in the glass structure of the front. Light will be provided by LED light sources, with the electricity received from solar panels placed on the roof, whereas the rainwater collected on the rooftops will be used for watering the garden.

Start up office building, Budapest 
invited architectural design competition, II. prize
client: GRAPHISOFT PARK KFT. 
year of the design: 2015 
volume: 3000 m²