BUDAPEST’S NEW HEART cultural center & mediatheque Arnau Aixalà Herrerias architecture & diversity
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Budapest’s new heart
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BUDAPEST LOCATION country and general location
Budapest is the capital of Hungary, located in the center-east Europe with almost 3 milions of people living in its metropolitan area Budapest represents the third part of Hungarian population. Divided by the Danube and separated in two cities, Buda-Pest has almost 15milions of tourist per year and each year that number is increasing.
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HUNGARY
Budapest’s new heart
WHERE?
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Hungarian culture caricature A cartoon, a collage or a caricature are the best way to express the stereotype image of something that already exist summarazing it into a single form to express a lot of things. For Hungarian people their culture is really important, the culture is nothing more than a combination of habits and ways of living from an era or a social group.
A collage, that “represents” Hungary and its culture: known for the ballet dancers, their typical sweet desserts and the most known Hungarian item in the world; the rubik’s cube invented by the hungarian Erno Rubik. Also it is representated the Danube river and the Budapest parliament which is their most famous monument.
A collage, that “represents” Budapest’s and its way of living; a very cold city in the winter that it is plain on one site but with mountains in the other site, also a city with a lot of bridges due to constant movement through them because of the coming and going from Buda to Pest
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Budapest’s new heart
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HISTORICAL STUDY
within city walls and Budapest growth We have to understand Budapest as what it is; two different cities. With Buda to the left and Pest to the right they grew individually from each other until they merge into one in 1880 building the iconic Chain Bridge. Historically the first settlement is roman found in the north of the actual city, but nowadays what it is considered the most ancient part of the city is Buda. Pest also has an old town founded more or less in the same time.
ancient pictures
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Budapest’s new heart
WHERE?
ALONG THE DANUBE general analysis
In this drawing we can see how both cities are two different worlds which we have to understand. Buda is a very mountainous city with a huge amount of different levels, eventhough the natural obstacles the city rides you to the Danube riverwalk which is the central spine of the city. Pest on the other hand is completely plain and literally everything happens along the riverwalken and the city brings you to it.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHERE?
ALONG THE DANUBE
main monuments, main roads and its connections The most important and representative buildings of Budapest known as main monuments; the hungarian parliament, St. Stephen’s cathedral, Vörösmarty tér a square in the old town of Pest, the Chain Bridge and Matthias Church in Buda. All the roads that leads to them are crossed in the same spot; a roundabout infront of the Chain Bridge.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHERE?
THE CITY SPINE
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hot spots
We have to understand the Danube river as the central spine of the city due to everything happens along it such as tourist movement or local. Within the continuum experimental of spatial chaos, we capture objects and fields define as a whole. Without obstacles this, our experience of a city can only be in perspective, incomplete and fragmented .
current condition
most often photographed places
most often pedestrian routes
physical and abstract limits
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Budapest’s new heart
WHERE?
DISTRICT V
current accessibility to the riverwalk The project will be located in the fifth district of Budapest, in the Pest side. Focusing on that part of the city, we have to analyse and study each different ways to access to the riverwalk. We can see how there is a lot of distance between them making it difficult to connect the city level with the river level and also that all of them are not accessible for everyone, wheelchairs are not capable to go through any.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHY?
THE ROUNDABOUT
study of the choosen spot and its current problems Once the spot is located and the space is understood we have to find the origin of the problems , that is when we find where our project will be located. The roundabout in the center of Budapest is where two worlds live among each other with two complete different languages. It does not work as a connection knot if not the contrary it works as a disconnection point. When the problems are found we see certain points that can help to improve the city center and that answer correctly to the this privileged location.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHY?
THE ROUNDABOUT paths and crossings
All this crossing of infraestructures is due to this disconnection point that generates a confrontation between the car and the pedestrian, cutting of its path making it impossible to create a real connection between the city and the riverwalk. We are looking for a representative space that gives the real value to this privileged spot in the city which is possible thanks to its natural morphologic characteristics. A city center without interruptions with full accessibility, a place for the people and wnot for the car.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHY?
THE RIVERWALK
study of the conflicts; its cause and conclusion When we focus on studying the accessibility to the riverwalk and its different access points we notice that those are located in different spots separeted by more than one hundred meters of distance. To begin with we notice that as we studied before that it is not accessible for everyone, because they are ancient stairs, but there is more. When we are crossing through this stairs to go down we find the tram railway also crossing in the other direction making it a huge barrier for the pedestrian when it tries to reach the riverwalk.
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Budapest’s new heart
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STRATEGY connect & relate
The intention of this project is to connect the two levels, to relate the city with the river which is how it was supposed to be. A square to access to the riverwalk, a place for the people to enjoy its natural patrimony which is the river the one that is present all the time in this city.
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Budapest’s new heart
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CITY_RIVER_MOUNTAIN concept
A space without barriers that connect all the city and gives full accessibility to everyone gathering all of this in the same spot which can be articulated with a piece.
current barriers
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Budapest’s new heart
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INTENTIONS & PROCEDURE articulate
The best way to answer to this call in need from this 21st century city is to begin with the implementation of a piece that can articulate the place. We want to connect the city and its people with the river and the other way around, that is why the city will arrive to the river border with a more straight and ortogonal forms whereas the river will arrive to the city from below with organic forms more naturals. This way it will be possible to generate a place for the people where the car will be secondary.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
CULTURAL CENTER & MEDIATHEQUE interior image
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
FROM THE CITY TO THE RIVER square plan
The square that we create answers to the needs of the city with full access to the riverwalk and generated due to the paths of the pedestrian in the zone.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
THE UNDERCITY
cultural center & mediatheque plan The programatic disposition of the building is also due to its hypothetical paths established by the entrance and the exits of the building. It is a zonification of 4 boxes around the building; administration-mediatheque-barrestaurant-culturalcenter-ateliers where the empty spaces automatically are converted into public streets where it we will keep the current tram making a new stand in the city center. With this empty spaces converted into streets we can also find a crossing under the bridge to connect both sides of the bridge.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
NEW CENTER
new public transport stand inside the building The new street generated by the paths of the pedrestrians create a perfect spot to make here a new stand of the current tram making it the beat of this new heart where a bunch of people will take this iconic railway and will stop in here to enjoy the fantastic river view.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
NEW CONNECTION
a new pass under the bridge to connect both sides The connection between one side of the Chain Bridge and the other side it is almost impossible due to there is not even a crosswalk above, you have to cross the street expecting not to die. With this underground corridor it will be easier for people to go to one side to the other. Illuminated at night and very wide to make it confortable and safer to cross it.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
THE RIVER FRONT up & down
The new front side of the Danube, a new connection with the city fluid and with perfect dialog between the city and the river. With this intervention we can foretell that the riverwalk will be even more active place evolving to not just a place to meet if not a place of creation, art, culture and leisure for the locals and for the tourist.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
SECTION CUT cultural center
Each box is understood as a space where a new activity is made with concrete conditions and needs. The intersectional space between them is the underground street where you can from the square to the river level. We can see an harmony between this two worlds the one above and the one below. The main connection between this two worlds is the entrance, a ramp that goes around the main courtyard where the user discovers the program and the use of the building and decides to go in.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
SECTION CUT mediatheque
We can appreciate that the building is underground, the roof is the upper level, the square. Both levels of the building are different while the upper level searchs the connection with the river the underground level is a whole connected space where a lot of activities are developed. The relation between the two levels is with the courtyards, the main connection is with the light that this courtyard provides from above and the forms of how the nature appears in the middle of the city thanks to them.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
COURTYARD interior image
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
CULTURAL CENTER interior image
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
MATERIALITY
section. constructive details The materials used in this project are very simple, reinforced concrete and glass. both of them we can see all over the building. Glass to allow the light to come in and reinforced concrete due to its ressistance.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
MATERIALITY
section. constructive details The stiffness of the reinforced concrete and its opacity with the brightness of the glass meant to gain a specific path and views on the undergroud matches with the uses and the transparency from the outside this way the different intentions of the project are not in conflict but they can be related.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
MATERIALITY
section. constructive details With the entrance the pedestrian discovers the program and the building. The entrance of this building is a ramp around a courtyard making it fluid to go from the city level to the river level. The entrance is the most important part of the building due to it will be the one that leads the user to find what is in it and for what is used for.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
STRUCTURE
section. constructive details The pillars of this project are not spotted this way due to a random thought, they are like this to follow the line of bringing the city to the river and the river to the city, in this case the pillars make an beautiful approach by being a “forest” inside a building generating this way a caos within order that reminds you about being out there in the nature.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
BUDAPEST’S NEW HEART axonometry of all the building
In conclusion we can see how to project works as a connecting knot between the city and the river helping them to arrive to each other gradually. It helps to activate this specific riverwalk zone but it can also help to make a change in other spots in town due to it is not only a problem of this zone is a problem that spreads all over the city. It suggest an interesting program for locals and for tourist that will help to increase life in this part of the city and finally and the most important its accessible for everyone.
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Budapest’s new heart
WHAT?
LAST IMAGE exterior image
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BUDAPEST 2019 ACCESS TO THE RIVERWALK & CONNECTION WITH THE CITY
Arnau Aixalà Herrerias architecture & diversity