Museum Alternative

Erick van Egeraat has brought forward an alternative proposal within discussion about construction of a museum complex in the Budapest city park.

Written by:
Lilya Aronova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

01 September 2015

Object

Architect:

Firm:

Budapest has announced the tender results for a project of a museum complex that will present collections of the Hungarian branch of Ludwig Museum, the New National Gallery and some other collections. The complex will be located on the territory of the two-hundred-year Vàrosliget city park. The City Hall is planning a grand construction and serious investment. Six large museums, immense area – naturally both the professionals and the public wonder: what remains of the park, so dear to the citizens? The same question was sure to occur to Erick van Egeraat – an experienced city planner, author of master-plans for districts and even cities; and an architect that has been successfully working in the Hungarian capital since 1991, knows it perfectly and admires it. “There is so much vacant land and unused areas in Budapest – he says wondering. – Why should we destroy a popular and beautiful park when we can bring to life the historical districts with the help of museums?”

The alternative suggested by the architect is logical, cost effective, ecological and at the same time – beautiful. For one thing, according to the expectations of van Egeraat’s team all six museums appointed for moving will be easily located within a kilometer distance from the city center. Let’s say that the first two “migrants” – Ludwig Museum (moving from the Palace of Arts in Ferencváros) and the New National Gallery (whose collections are now exhibited in the rooms of Buda Castle, that are initially not suited for museum purposes) – will fit perfectly into the new wing of the Budapest City Hall – the tender for its modernization and expansion was already won by Erick van Egeraat in 2008. It was not only and not merely about the restoration, but about completing the construction: the building where the administration of the capital sits today is basically a respectable, massive suspended construction, canonized by centuries of time. Construction of the future City Hall – originally a recreation house for physically challenged people and veterans of war – began in 1716 by Fortunato de Prati. Seven years later, he was replaced by Anton Erhard Martinelli – an Austrian architect of Italian descent. The first stage of construction was finished in 1747 – the wing extending along today’s Városház street (from Hungarian – City Hall street). The building impressed with its sizes and decor: the baroque façade of almost 190 meters long was decorated with a central tower and three porticos with allegoric statues and bas-relief glorifying the victories of Eugene of Savoy and king Karl III over the Ottoman Empire. In the late 18th century, the building was repurposed for grenadier barrack rooms, and only in 1894 it became the City Hall. The original plan of the complex presented a building, perpendicular in plan, almost twice as big as the existing one and with four symmetrical courtyards. However, for several reasons – among those the closely standing city wall – these plans were never implemented, and only in early 19th century the city council decided to complete this square by building the missing northern wing along Károly körút boulevard, Ferenc Deak square and Gerloczy Street. The tender was announced, the winner – chosen, deadlines of construction were established – 2012 – but, even though the city wall had been all gone besides the stonework under ground, the project remained a project. This time – for financial reasons: the recession of 2009 had a great influence on the Hungarian economy.

zooming — Project for New National Gallery and Ludwig Museum in Budapest © (designed by) Erick van Egeraat

The project of Erick van Egeraat combines a reconstruction of the historical building with new construction that is to take up about 4 hectares total. The main idea is most possible permeability of the object, its inclusion into the fabric of the city life by means of creating new pedestrian routes (you can comfortably cross the City Hall from the boulevard to the pedestrian street Vaci and further on – to the Danube and bridges leading to Buda) and conveniently combining three main functions within the complex: cultural, administrative and commercial. Surely, if two large museums move here, the cultural component will be strongly supported, but it also played a most important role in the original project. The central part of the ensemble is the Forum – a multifunctional area providing plenty of opportunities for arranging exhibitions, theatrical performances, concerts and conferences. This is the place where the architects suggests placing the collections of Ludwig Museum and the New National Gallery. The wing allocated for them (a perfectly suitable term in this case) breaks in the regular-shaped plan of the historical building like an airplane or a bird’s wing. The area in front of the Forum, sheltered under a wide hanging roof, is supposed to be the main gate to the complex. The authors plan to place cafes, information services and places for events here. The courtyard of the museum can also be used for public events – one of the four yards planned long ago by Martinelli – but of course, primarily it is meant for expositions.

As proposed by Erick van Egeraat, the city administration retains the existing rooms and two courtyards – this way nothing will disturb it from work. Commercial objects can be placed in the same part of the new construction – that stretches along Istvan Barsi Street – to make the complex more attractive for the public – shops, apartments, an art-hotel, etc.

It is only at first sight, that the striking, emphatically modern architecture of the new wings contrasts with the existing part of the complex and the urban fabric surrounding it – but in fact, as it always is with Erick van Egeraat, there are plenty of more or less obvious connections, allusions, precise and permissive rhymes between them. The main facade of the ensemble, stretching along Károly Körút Boulevard, represents a massive metaphor of movement form the old to the new, from closed to transparent. If at the eastern corner, it repeats with a loose echo the proportions of the original building adjusting to the regular rhythm of the narrow windows, then moving closer towards Deak Square the openings become wider, partitions step apart and lose their linearity; and now we see the white silhouettes of the trees – not so much covering, but underlining the space of the courtyard. By the way, another conceptual layer is concealed here: there is the City Hall park in place of this courtyard now, and within the new modernization plan it will remain untouched to preserve and add up its present public functions – the park is often a place for fairs and festivals.

The plastic culmination of the project is the transparent tower at the corner, decorated with “tree trunks” growing out of the symbolically-rendered park of the main façade. “The watchtower is not supposed to look as an excuse for what we are doing here – says the architect. – On the contrary, it should be seen as a sign of pride for everything new”. And this rather futuristic construction too respects the historical context of the city: fragile and almost ephemeral, it does not dominate over the whole construction, but adds new harmony to it. Together with the two “neighbors” – the tower of the Anker House, an architectural monument of the early 20th century, and the City Hall of the 18th century – they can form an impressive trio. The tower stands by the city’s “balcony” – the promenade gallery along the upper part of the façade that should also give marvelous views.

Erick van Egeraat often defines his projects as “the modern Baroque” – meaning not the style, but his “personal planning strategy”, the complexity and multiplicity of architecture. In the project of modernization and expansion of the Budapest City Hall, the modern Baroque creates a brilliant combination with the historic one, underlining and enriching it. In this context, the presence of two such collections as the National Gallery of the old Hungarian masters and Peter Ludwig’s collection of modern art, within the walls of one ensemble makes the symbolic meaning even stronger. If we add the obvious advantages of the project – the cost effectiveness, location of the City Hall on the “museum axis” of the city, sufficiency of the existing infrastructure – then we see, why this alternative proposal of Erick van Egeraat has brought the discussion about the museum complex construction up to a completely new level. And it is being more and more widely recognized.

Architect:

Firm:

01 September 2015

Written by:

Lilya Aronova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

The Ever-Changing Mist

T+T Architects has developed a concept for a premium business center featuring “living” façades that change their configuration depending on weather conditions, time of day, and the occupants’ needs, transforming the building into an urban-scale installation. The idea of endless variability continues inside, with interiors designed to accommodate different scenarios of use. Some of the engineering solutions proposed for the project are being introduced to the Russian commercial real estate market for the first time.

Review

A Small Book of Farewell

The book dedicated to Valery Kanyashin, published by his colleagues at Ostozhenka Architects, is remarkably small. It fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, more like sketchbook than an actual architectural monograph. Combined with its tiny print run, the result is an intentionally unglamorous, decidedly non-representational publication – one that is made “for friends”. Yet the way it weaves together projects, texts, photographs, and drawings is remarkably subtle. Perhaps this is precisely how one comes to understand a person, at least a little, by tracing the course of their creative life.

Object

Win-Win

For Perm, the opening of the new home for its Art Gallery – guardian of the famous collection of Perm wooden sculpture – marks the end of a 35-year search for a building worthy of a collection that had long outgrown the city cathedral that had served as its only home. Sergey Tchoban considers the project one of the most important of his career in Russia and emphasizes that it deliberately avoids “iconic” architecture in favor of contextual appropriateness. We traveled to Perm to explore both the building and its extensive new exhibition, and found that, much like Tchoban’s other museum projects, it is conceived in a distinctly contemporary way: the old and the new do not merely coexist but reinforce one another through contrast, sharpening the visitor’s perception of the museum.

Object

A Score for 12th Line

“Amo”, a residential complex designed by Stepan Liphart on Vasilyevsky Island, brings together three architectural ideas: the cour d’honneur, a piazzetta-like courtyard, and imagery borrowed from Renaissance architecture. Together, these elements make a contemporary apartment complex feel more humane, extending the theme of individuality in residential design. The effect is achieved through a carefully calibrated vocabulary of moderately standardized components: recessed façade panels enriched with sgraffito ornament, a disciplined hierarchy of cornices and moldings, and a series of bespoke decorative details. The development combines residential and hotel sections that frame the restored wooden mansion of the Brömme brothers.

Object

Riverfront Façade

The Premium residential complex, designed by KPLN, has been built in the town of Pushkino, just outside Moscow, on the banks of the Serebryanka River. Its two towers reinforce the scale of the high-rise development that emerged here in the 2000s, while introducing a bolder architectural form that reads more effectively from a distance, along with a system of contrasts and design strategies responding to the site’s waterfront setting. One of the project’s distinctive features is a series of metal discs that conceal air-conditioning units while serving as an additional decorative layer.

Object

A Construction Set for Adult Life

In the project by Atrium, the new building for Moscow’s School No. 2107, designed to accommodate 1,100 students, is above all a carefully organized system of learning and recreational spaces. On the one hand, it is complex and highly articulated; on the other, it remains intuitive, safe, and conducive to personal growth. In a sense, it serves as a model of life in the city – a place where one must communicate, make decisions, plan ahead, and find a balance between work and leisure. All of these scenarios are reflected, to varying degrees, in the building’s architecture.

Object

Axis of Rotation

One of the installations in the Masters exhibition at Arch Moscow featured a futuristic yet entirely feasible project by Vladimir Plotkin and TPO Reserve – a tower that could be assembled from prefabricated factory-made modules. The concept even incorporates the possibility of slow rotation (!). Using the same module, one could create a residential block, a giant cantilevered “arrow”, or virtually any other configuration you could possibly think of. Let us take a closer look at the module itself.

A New Magazine and a New Ranking

The magazine Expert.Urban has only just appeared, apparently timed to coincide with Arch Moscow. It is published with the support of VEB.RF and Strelka KB. We have not yet had time to read it cover to cover, but the impression so far is that it consists of about eighty percent interviews. It also features a distinctly “Strelka-style” initiative: a ranking of the “Best Architect of Moscow in the 21st Century”. So, who came out on top? Sergey Skuratov. Yuri Grigoryan took second place, and Sergei Tchoban came third.

Interview

Oleg Shapiro: “We design life as a whole, in all of its diversity”

Wowhaus has long since outgrown its association with “urban improvement” projects alone. One of its newer directions is neo-industrialization. Another is large-scale master planning. Yet work on Gorky Park is once again underway – only now on a more systematic and far-reaching level. In this interview, we simultaneously revisit Rem Koolhaas, Strelka, and the history of attention to the “urban environment”, while also exploring what exactly Wowhaus is working on today and how the company operates – with its nine divisions and approximately 160 employees.

Object

Red Card for Copyright

The development concept for the territory of Shinnik Stadium in Yaroslavl, prepared by PI ARENA, took second place in an open call competition. The architects proposed a unified structure combining a football arena, a hotel, and the headquarters of PSB Bank, with carefully considered usage scenarios. However, the competition was organized in such a way that the team ultimately chose to forgo the prize money in order to retain their copyright.

News

CinemaHologram

Not long ago, the Moscow authorities approved the project for a new House of Cinema complex by Kleinewelt Architekten. The original 1968 building could not be preserved – yet the architects managed to save its stained-glass panels, metal reliefs, and even the volumetric parameters of the structure, which will continue to house the Union of Cinematographers and cinema halls. The project’s main focal point, however, will be a residential tower. We examine its sculptural qualities and its allusions within the Moscow context.

Contest Results

Form as Method: TPO Reserve

At the core of the concept developed by Vladimir Plotkin and TPO Reserve lies an unconventional morphology that addresses functional challenges beyond purely formal concerns. Above all, however, it serves expressiveness and creates a rare kind of spatial and emotional experience, as becomes evident when examining the project’s key solutions. We studied it in detail, and it was all worth it. Our interpretation is that what drives this project is neither style nor even metaphor, but rather a method.

Object

Mound of Memory

The competition proposal for a memorial complex on the Pulkovo Heights by Studio 44 will not be realized, yet it deserves attention as an intriguing example of how architecture can symbolize traumatic events and thereby contribute to their processing and integration into human experience. The architects also succeed in combining memorial and recreational functions without slipping either into excessive dramatization or oversimplification. The project develops ideas explored in two earlier competition entries that likewise remained unbuilt – the Museum of the Siege of Leningrad and the Tuchkov Buyan park. It also recalls the mound-like hill that Alexander Nikolsky embodied in the form of the now-lost stadium on Krestovsky Island.

Object

Home Base

Working on the new building for Letovo Junior School – opened to students in autumn 2025 in the MSU Valley – the architects of UNK, following the client’s vision, subordinated both façades and interiors to the theme of “home”. Multiple variations of pitched roofs, a city skyline traced across glass balustrades, wooden textures, and a whole series of micro-spaces for retreat within public areas are all at the disposal of primary and middle school students. We take a closer look at the new school building – and at how it interprets current trends in educational environments.

Object

Doubles Match

The architecture of the Tennis Palace built in Luzhniki Olympic Complex, designed by Arena Design Institute, was shaped by three factors: the proximity of the brutalist Druzhba Arena, the closeness of the Moskva River and the metro bridge overpass, as well as the specifics of the function – tennis courts require large spans, abundant light, yet at the same time protection from direct sunlight. The architects divided the building into several blocks, playing on contrast, which is further emphasized by the façades developed in collaboration with TPO Reserve and Vladimir Plotkin.

Object

Microdynamics of Macroprocesses

Given the proximity of the multifunctional complex SOLOS to Sokolniki Park and to a major transport hub, Kleinewelt Architekten embedded in the design of the two high-rise towers a sense of dynamism more characteristic of natural phenomena than of man-made objects. Without the authors’ diagrams, this logic is not easy to decipher, although the eye immediately detects a pattern and tries to grasp it. It seems to us that one tower contains the impulse of a bud about to open, while the other evokes the movement of a lithospheric plate. Let us try to unravel it together.

Report

The Space of Post-Cubism

Sergei Tchoban and Alexandra Sheiner, of Studio CHART, created for the exhibition of “post-cubist” sculpture by Beatrice Sandomirskaya – a talented and even “mainstream” artist, yet almost unknown even to art historians – a space akin to her sculptural language: solidly built, confidently stereometric, and subtly expressive. It curves, emphasizing the mass of the sculpture, envelops the viewer, and guides them from one perspective to another, from a generic “shrine” to a “Madonna”.

Object

The Value of Open Space

For the site near the Barrikadnaya Metro Station, Sergey Skuratov developed five projects between 2020 and 2025. Two of them were ones that won the client’s invitation-only competitions. The fifth was recently selected by the Mayor of Moscow for implementation. The project is vivid and sculptural, expressive, eye-catching, and engaging – very much in line with the spirit of our time. And yet, this project is mid-rise rather than tall. In its northwestern part, near the metro and Druzhinnikovskaya Street, it shapes a comfortable urban environment. On the opposite side, it opens up, allowing sunlight into the courtyard and creating a spatial pause within the dense city fabric. How it is organized, what geometric principles underlie it, and why it takes this form – all this is explored in our article.

Coming From the Cold

The ArchBukhta Festival remains one of the few events in Russia where participants go through the entire process of creating an architectural object – from concept to construction. And they do so on the shores of Lake Baikal, in dedication to it. This year, GAFA took part and shared its experience: a local legend, a team-specific design code, friendship, as well as ice skating and endurance in freezing temperatures all contributed to gaining something more than just an award.

Object

Symphony of Water and Brick

The Alter residential complex, designed by Stepan Liphart and built on a bend of the Okhta River, is an example of a “drawn house”: the number of original architectural details is virtually immeasurable. As a result, ribs, projections, and recesses create a picturesque silhouette even without a significant variation in height. Both composition and material respond to the proximity of the river and to the red-brick factory building dating back to the early 20th century. The project was also significantly shaped by recommendations from the city’s chief architect. More details in our article.

Object

The Penguin House

The building with a curved façade on Brestskaya Street is one of the manifestos of Russian neomodernism of the early 2000s, a sculpture – this is how Anatoly Belov interprets it, speaking of “breaking from the modernist canon and the contextual approach”. We do not fully agree with the author, but his perspective is an interesting one.

Object

Wave and Vertical

The premium residential complex designed by GAFA for a site in the Khoroshevsky District responds to multiple constraints – the arc of a planned roadway, the water protection zone of the Khodynka River, and insolation requirements – through inventive massing. The composition is built on the interplay of two spatial layers: an elongated perimeter block and three towers concealed behind it generate the silhouette and key viewpoints, while also adding semantic depth reinforced by the façade solutions. Another defining feature is a large private courtyard, complemented by a citywide linear park.

Object

Office on Trubnaya

We continue publishing projects by Valery Kanyashin. A building once described, a quarter century ago, as an example of “quiet modernism” has remained just that in some people’s memory. According to Anatoly Belov, its main quality is its unobtrusiveness. The architects from Ostozhenka say the leading role here is played by context and landscape – the change in elevation. Yet is it really so inconspicuous?

Object

The First International

With this publication, we begin a series of texts dedicated to works by the late Valery Kanyashin, one of the founders of Ostozhenka Architects. As it happens, the projects he was involved in largely illustrate our understanding of the firm and its history. The first project in this series is the International Moscow Bank on Prechistenskaya Embankment.

in memoriam

In Memory of Valery Kanyashin

On Friday, February 27, architect Valery Kanyashin passed away – co-founder of Ostozhenka Architects and the author of many significant buildings in Moscow. We publish a text by Anatoly Belov in memory of Valery Kanyashin.

Report

Hypertext in Space

As part of the exhibition “What We Have We (Do Not) Keep”, Sergey Tchoban, the Museum of Architecture, and the CHART studio experiment with an eco-conscious approach to exhibition design, with thematic cross-references and even with publicistic reflections on the necessity of preserving modernism, the roots of contemporary architecture, and the birth of ideas. All of this makes the exhibition, with its light and transparent design, look quite innovative. The elements – both “material” and conceptual – are familiar, yet their combination is far from conventional.

Object

The Outline of “Foundation”

In their competition proposal for the Fili transport hub, the consortium led by Alexey Ilyin proposed an “inhabited arch” – a form that is simple yet complex. The architects emphasize that even at the competition stage, the project’s feasibility was fully calculated, taking into account the minimal nighttime closures of Bagration Avenue. How was this achieved? With what functions? Let us take a closer look. In our view, the building would have suited the heroes of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels perfectly.

Object

The Flying Horizontal

“A house in the spirit of Wright”, as architect Roman Leonidov describes it, pointing to his source of inspiration, was built on a challenging wedge-shaped site. To achieve a sense of intimacy and secure good views from the windows, the entire volume had to be shifted toward the far boundary, turning the house “back” to the neighboring mansions. The main façade demonstrates time-tested techniques often employed by the company: articulated horizontals, a weightless roofline, and a triad of materials – light plaster, dark slate, and warm wood.

Object

Needles of Horizon Contemplation

The “House of Horizons”, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten in Krylatskoye, is carefully thought out at the stereometric level – from the logic of how the volumes interlock (and, conversely, how gaps are articulated between them) to the triangular balconies that give the building its striking, slightly bristling silhouette.

News

The Red Thread

A linear park project prepared by Alexey Ilyin studio for the improvement of a riverbank in one of the residential districts seeks to reconnect people with nature. Two levels of the embankment invite visitors to contemplate the landscape while at the same time protecting the riverbank from excessive human impact. The “aerial street” links functional zones and the opposite banks, creating new points of attraction along the way: balconies, bridges, and even a “grotto”.