BALINT HALASZ - Selected Works -
PERSONAL SUMMARY
After finishing my studies in architecture I have gained international experience in the design of mixed-use, commercial, office, public, urban projects and several other typologies, in the confines of competitions and other commissions. I was mainly involved in the conceptual and design development phase of the projects. Since I have gained a second degree in urban studies, beside the design skills and competences, I have developed an interdisciplinary outlook and extensive skills in research and urban theory. My major research interest is urban density. During my education and professional experience I have developed strong problem solving skills, gained experience in team work in a multicultural environment and in creating designs that are innovative, coherent and adapted to the sociocultural, economic and spatial context. I’m a registered architect in the United Kingdom.
CURRICULUM VITAE Name Contact
Balint Halasz bal.halasz@gmail.com
Education
2013-2015 2005-2006 2001-2005, 2006-2010
University of Vienna, 4Cities Erasmus Mundus, Master in Urban Studies Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Architecture de Lyon, academic year, MIRA scholarship Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Master in Architecture and Engineering
Work experience
20182016-2017 2015-2016 2011-2013 2006-2007
Group Dyer, Budapest, project architect Gaunt Francis Architects, Cardiff, architectural assistant (2016-2017), architect (2017) Freelance design architect, Budapest OAD, Beijing, design architect INSEAD, Fountainebleau, external co-worker, research assistant
Design Projects
2019 2018 - 2019 2018 - 2019 2016 - 2017 2016 2015 2015 2015 2014 2010 - 2014
Tihany residential master plan with Dyer UNA Carbis Bay, Cornwall, hotel design development with Dyer Kutuzovsky, Level Group and Lefortovo masterplan concepts in Moscow, with Dyer Lakes by Yoo, technical design of large-scale high-end residential development with GFA Superscape 2016 Maglod 105 Houses, selected design competition for a suburban residential development Europan 13 Graz international urban design competition Dakar Temporary Cinema international open competition Workshop with Arkilab (DK) on the revitalization of Volkets Park in Copenhagen schematic design of several large-scale mixed-use, hotel, retail, office and urban design projects at OAD, including Dongsheng Technology Park, Shunyi Beijing Busines Complex, Haining Leather Mall and Wanda Plaza Bozhou Concept for the refurbishment of Post Palace heritage building to high-end hotel, project leader Teampannon 320° Siófok Cultural and Educational Center international architectural competition project leader/architect Peter Janesch Virtual learning space design and realization for Kaplan International Colleges Europan 10 Ajka international urban design competition Theater Weöres Sándor in Szombathely, purchased design submission, project leader/architect: Antal Puhl
2010 2010 2010 2009 2008 Research Projects
2019 2017 2017 2013 2008
Affiliations
2017 2017-2018
Article ‘Space Syntax’s Relation to Seatig Choices from an Evolutionary Approach’ published in Periodica Polytechnica Architecture, BUTE Article ’Investigating changes in space usage preferences by changing aesthetic environmental variables’ published (Proceedings of the 11th Space Syntax Symposium) Poster presentation at workshop ’Secondary effects in behavior change: Behavioral spillover in theory and practice’ by Cardiff University and London School of Economics Density: Spatial Patterns and Perception (MA thesis) INSEAD Virtual Campus published in the book ’Space Between People: how virtual changes physical architecture’ (edited by Stephen Doesinger, 2008, Prestel) ARB RIBA Chartered Member
MAGLOD 105 HOUSES - Urban / Residential -
Location: Sector: Area: Stage: Project context: Role:
Maglod, Hungary urban 18000 sqm feasibility and concept selected design competition, co-author project architect - masterplan and architecturel concept
The suburban residential development has 132 units. The concept is envisioning a neighborhood that is adaptable to the changing household structures and lifestyles by potentially incorporating other functions than dwelling. The layout of the individual houses allows the opening up of certain inside spaces to the street, accomodating semi-private and public uses. Social sustainability is an important aim for the project, emphasising the potential for social mixity and animating the public spaces with a refined private-public relationship. A design goal is to give a certain unity and identity to the neighborhood, while avoiding the monotonity of generic large scale suburban developments. This is acheived by a common architectural language in the massing but diversity in the use of different materials.
LAKES BY YOO - Residential -
Location: Sector: Area: Stage: Project Context: Role:
Coswold, United Kingdom residential construction GFA architect - technical design, coordination, site supervision
The 260 hectares, 160 home lake fronted residential development in the Cotswolds is a project of the design firm Yoo. The shores of the lakes are populated with different housing types with high-end solutions and prices up to GBP3.5m. The work on the project involved coordination between the client (Lakes by Yoo), consultants, suppliers, carrying out the technical design of the timber structured buildings aligned with the concepts and design ethos laid down by Yoo, furthermore on-site meetings and supervision.
TELEKI MARKET - Retail -
The theme of my MA diploma project is the reconstruction of the market on Teleki square, Budapest. The goal is to provide a commercial surface that is strongly interacting with the public spaces around, blurring the strict boundaries between the market and the open air spaces and vitalizing the surroundings of the building. The space is organized by a grid, matching the size of a single stand, where the position of the stands can be adapted to the current needs. All the service functions are located underground, while the administation is placed in the tower tracing the northern corner of the square, leaving the ground floor of the market exclusively for commercial activities. Lightweight structures are placed in some of the fields of the concrete roof structure, giving space forclosed shops and for supply. The multiple layered roof is capable of satisfying complex functional needs.
Location: Sector: Area: Stage: Project context: Role:
Budapest, Hungary Retail 10800 sqm concept, detailed design academic project student - comprehensive design
320° CULTURAL CENTER - Pubic / Adaptive reuse -
HOSSZMETSZET
női mosdó
4.3.5-1 gépészet - látszik
ak. ment
234,7 m2
1.1.15. vízesblokk 1.1.10. ruhatár
ffi mosdó
1.1.6-1 raktár
70,8 m2
tak. szer.
81,8 m2
91,8 m2
teherlift
+0,750 -2,250
1.1.6-2 manipulációs tér 50,4 m2
1.1.9. előcsarnok
1.1.8-1 előtér
200,8 m2
62,7 m2
szervíz l.
lift 1.1.5 próbaterem 71,7 m2
lift közlekedő lift
4.2.1. design shop 38,0 m2
4.1.4. kávézó 67,5 m2
fekete mosogató
fehér mosogató
4.1.3 konyhatechnológia
hús előkészítő
hűtő
hűtő
szárazárú raktár fogyóeszköz raktár italraktár
közlekedő 4.3.4-2 Gazdasági bejárat
352,4 m2
33,5
tálaló
iroda főzőkonyha
moslék
zöldség előkészítőhűtő
hűtő
tak szer földesárú raktárgöngyöleg raktár
árúátvétel
4.3.4-1 gazdasági porta 24,1 m2
m2
szem. étkező szem. öltöző
szem. öltöző
4.3.6-1 közlekedő 14,2 m2
FÖLDSZINTI ALAPRAJZ
Location: Sector: Area: Stage: Prroject context: role:
Siofok, Hungary cultural, refurbishment 12000 sqm concept open competition design architect - concept tároló ffi mosdó női mosdó
1.1.14. vizesblokk 53,0 m2
The former bread factory in the district of Fokijegy, Siófok is changing its function according to the local initiatives. Leaving its industrial past, it will transform into a cultural, art, educational and technical center. The extention does not want to overload the existing building and parcel, so it is aspiring to a reasonable minimum of intervention: it is contracting the intersecting functions into multifunctional, variably usable spaces, supplementing them with the necessary service facilities. A light, modular, casted concrete structure is inserted, distinguished well from the old structure, fulfilling the idea of the minimal intervention and preserving the original spatial layout of the factory.
DAKAR MOBILE CINEMA - Temporary -
Location: Sector: Area: Stage: Project context: Role:
Dakar, Senegal temporary 60/500 sqm concept open competition project lead
The temporary cinema aims at bringing life into Senegalese cinema culture. The project functions as a landmark that is easily variable and adaptable not only to the cinema function but also to other social activities. The project aims to be usable and meaningful not only for the local community, but also for a wider, even international audience. The cinema can be placed in major open spaces and centralities of Dakar. A vertical mass that is visible from long distance is used and it is marked by its particular, diamond-like, triangulated shape. The outer shell is covered with textile which functions as an animated surface for projecting the programme, digital audiovisual artworks or other advertisement from within.
BACK.GROUND - Urban / Speculative -
The spatial logic of historical Vienna’s urban grid is not supporting the emergence of new models in open urban space usage, thus gives little opportunity for the reconsideration of private-common-public relationships. The grid is defined by boundaries; it is characterized by the lack of transitional space. Altering the spatial logic may support new activity models built upon shared economies by improving accessibility to common resources and reinforcing local nexuses. The project attempts to challenge the primacy of the infrastructure oriented traditional street network, and explore the possibilities of the multiplication or superposition of physical and nonphysical urban networks, to create urban space centered on co-inhabitation, leisure and cooperative practices of space creation. The ground floor structures of the typical Viennese perimeter blocks are gradually becoming porous by opening up the building structures. The ground floor is progressively turning into a continuous surface passing under the blocks, and only the vertical circulation and service cores, shafts and architectural heritage are kept. It is a space of a territorial character, a dynamic, operative topography. Land usage is categorized and regulated along three dimensions: the body operating the field (private, community, public), the timeframe of the usage (permanent, temporary) and the economic character of the usage (for-profit, non-profit). The idea of reconfiguring of the ground floors allows moving away from a layout centered on the movement in order to create a landscape for inhabitation, with superimposing a new type of distributed network on the rectilinear grid of the existing street-square layout.
SZOLNOK MEDIA LIBRARY - Public -
The project fits in a larger scheme aiming for the revitalization of the river banks of the city of Szolnok in Hungary. The vertical mass of the building functions as an architectural sign in an important traffic junction of the city, next to the confluence of the town’s two rivers. The interior is organized around the closed volumes of the multimedia room and the studio. The building is receiving a stairs system that wiggles up to the roof, running across the flowing and interconnected open-spaces around the boxes. This circulation space creates a physical and visual link between the different functional units, placed on different levels, potentially generating complex forms of usage.
Location: Sector: Area: Stage: Project context: Role:
Szolnok, Hungary public 1200 sqm concept, developed design academic project student - comprehensive
UNA ST. IVES - Hospitality -
Location: Sector: Area: Stage: Project Context: Role:
Cornwall, United Kingdom hotel 5000 sqm tender, construction GroupDyer, project architect - co-ordination, technical design, specifications
The project includes a 55 room hotel, a pavilion building with 4 duplex apartments and several villas as a part of a large scale development in Cornwall, England. I joined the project in the tender stage as a project architect, responsible for developing the design, defining performance and specifications, co-ordinating with specialists and suppliers, so that the initial conceptual goals can be turned into reality. Environmental sustainability, accessibility and family friendliness are key features of the project: these goals were pursued from concept through the developed design to the technical design stage.
KIKO RESEARCH FACILITY - Publicis/ Adaptive The former bread factory in the district of Fokijegy, Siรณfok changingreuse its function according to the local initiatives.
Leaving its industrial past, it will transform into a cultural, art, educational and technical center. The extention does not want to overload the existing building and parcel, so it is aspiring to a reasonable minimum of intervention: it is contracting the intersecting functions into multifunctional, variably usable spaces, supplementing them with the necessary service facilities. A light, modular, casted concrete structure is inserted, distinguished well from the old structure, fulfilling the idea of the minimal intervention and preserving the original spatial layout of the factory.
Location: Sector: Area: Stage: context: role:
Budapest, Hungary public, refurbishment 20500 sqm feasibility, concept private commission design architect - floorplan developemnt
The project is the refurbisment of a building complex built in 1958 and its conversion into a mixed-use facility, including research labs, an educational centre and outpatient services related to oncology. The original architectural character is kept, but the units are connceted with a bridge system. The ground floors are opened up with keeping the original structural grid, and housing the rather public functions animating the open spaces. The traffic and parking system is reorganised, so the space between the blocks can be fully pedestrianised.
és Ferenchegyi az MTA Kémiai ható, amely új jlesztő központ, gyszerfejlesztési özpont és egyéb n tanulmányterv intézményterület lmi, szolgáltató, hitéleti és sport t koncepcióknak etősége 10 %, a tménymagasság en több épület és z épületegyüttes ndkét bemutatott b Pusztaszeri úti zervezve kapnak setén az önállóan központ, klinika ben az esetben kben elhelyezett mb működésétől Pusztaszeri úti ecepciója, és az lgozója számára A közös recepció ítva. A kisebb, a bbi Ferenchegyi ácienseket és a is használható, kapu nyitható a s megközelíthető
Helyszínrajz M=1:1000
PUBLICATION ABSTRACTS - Research -
Losonczi A., Halasz B., Keszei B., Dobszai D., Dull A. (2017) INVESTIGATING CHANGES IN SPACE USAGE PREFERENCES BY CHANGING AESTHETIC ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES Poceedings of the 11th International Space Syntax Symposium, Lisbon, Instituto Superior Técnico, Departamento de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Georrecursos, Portugal When investigating links between the physical environment, experience and behavior, the theoretical framework of space syntax prioritizes the geometry related properties of space to explore the social function of that space. The present research aims to draw attention on other, aesthetic properties linked to materials. For this, the article explores how patterns in spatial choices of users are related to the qualities of a sub-space in a spatial system both in terms of geometric confiiurations and material quality (surface structuring). Changing the qualities of the physical environment (either configurational features of spaces or surface structuring- will affect the functional and aesthetic mental representation of space by the user and therefore infuence behavior. The paper looks at the inter-relations between the factors above through anexperiment, which is designed to map changes in user preference in space usage by changing the aesthetic material-related variables, while fixing the ones related to geometry (configurational variables).
Szantay Zs., Halasz B., Losonczi A., Keszei B., Dull A. (2017) SPILLOVER EFFECT TRACED THROUGHT THE ARCHITECTURE OF A HUNGARIAN ECOCOMMUNITY For poster presentation at the Spillover Workshop organized by Cardiff University and London School of Economics Planned and later realized spatial structures reflect the anticipated behaviour patterns they could accommodate. The layout of these structures is defined by the designers and future users, influenced by their dreams, ideologies, as well as the socio-physical setting they are integrated within and certain behaviour patterns associated. The research focuses on a group of 5 families who moved in an existing village to establish an eco-neighbourhood at its periphery. Their preset aspirations and visions involved living independently from the existing community. The study follows alterations in the architectural plans (from concepts to the realised buildings), which were influenced by the process of integration of the new inhabitants. These alterations reflect the way behaviour patterns of the existing community affected the anticipated lifestyles and behaviour patterns of the newcomers. Thus, the research investigates spillover by looking at the way architectural plans are modified in the design process to accommodate certain patterns originating from other individuals or groups. Interviews, questionnaires, documented workshops and field experiments, as well as analysis of the successive phases of the architectural plans and realized buildings were used for modeling and evaluating the 7 year-long process. Földszint
Az épületben mozgó ember “látottságát” és látási lehetőségeit a kutató egyenest (láthatósági egyenest). Ezután az egyeneseket aszerint színe
PUBLICATION ABSTRACTS - Research -
Halasz, B. (2015) DENSITY: SPATIAL PATTERNS AND PERCEPTION Master Thesis The research focuses on the implications of urban density in relation with spatial organization, on the scale of architecture. The theme of density is looked at in the context of the densification objectives set by the current planning policies. Density is a major indicator of urban form, but assessing it without linking to the variables of spatial configuration may render density meaningless. The thesis tries to make this link. Also, the measurment of density poses challenges, being a qualitative and a quantitative concept at the same time. Thus, the thesis putting in focus the relation of objective measures of densitiy, spatial configurations and the subjective experience of density. The research is focusing on how different spatial configurational patterns can lead to different experience of social and spatial density in residential environments with similar objective density measures, aiming to identify the design variables that are the most relavant in planning residential environment that maximize the benefits and minimize the negative effects of high density. The results show that same overall densities can be achieved with layouts having very different connectivity and visibility measures (which are the variables used describing spatial configurations) and a very different distribution of density. In the case of certain variables used for measuring the perception of density (such as privacy, perception of healthiness, degree of interaction with the neighbors) connection with spatial configuration has been identified. The case studies show big variations in the experience of density. The results show discrepancy between objective and subjective measures of density...
Keszei B.., Halasz B., Losonczi A., Dull A. (2019) SPACE SYNTAX’S RELATION TO SEATING CHOICES FROM AN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH Periodica Polytechnica Architecture, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Accepted for publication Space syntax provides information on the probabilities of certain behavior types (e.g., seating choice, movement) depending on the configuration of space. The evolutionary approach (e.g. Appleton’s prospect-refuge theory) in environmental psychology can help designers in creating spaces by providing a better understanding why certain parts of an open space or a building are avoided or occupied, why good „observation points” or „hiding places” are prefered. Our research aimed to explore how the different space syntax variables (intervisibility, visual integration and total depth) predict specific behaviors – seating choices of 216 participants – in a 3D virtual model of a lounge area and how does the prospect-refuge theory relate to these predictions. The results show that there was a variation in the seating choices depending on the goal of the user (being seen or hiding). The expected significant correlations with the space syntax measurements were presented in the situations where being seen was the goal of the participants.
ldal
URI STREET 72 érzékelhető közös jelenlét
- Research / Adaptive reuse -
Location: Sector: Area: Stage: Context: Role: role:
Budapest, Hungary public, refurbishment feasibility, concept selected competition design research research
The project itself is the reconversion of a heritage buliding in to a research centre. My role SPACE SYNTAX was to inform the design process with a quantitative analysis of the spatial layout of the exZÖLD ÉPÍTÉSZdesign IRODA options. The aim of these analyses was to create isting buildings GINKGO and of -the different layouts that facilitate coincidental encounters in the building by creating specific visibility and accessibility conditions, which can improve productivity and the effectiveness of the organisation. The research was carried out using the methodology of space syntax. 72. oldal
HASZNÁL
BALINT HALASZ Email bal.halasz@gmail.com Mobile +36 30 555 1892 Address 49. Delej Street 18/1/10 Budapest 1089 Hungary