BUDAPEST, HEART AND HEALTHCARE CLINIC EXTENSION 2018

The ensemble of Semmelweis University Heart and Vascular Centre is about to be extended with a diagnostic imaging building. The future location of diagnostic investigation, evaluation and education is a particularly significant milestone in the modernisation of the institution. Unlike contemporary hospital architecture typically developed on peripheries, this one is very much defined by the restraints of the building site on Városmajor street 70. The height differences within the parcel, the pedestrian bridge attaining connection with the main building respectively the multiplicity of the program resulted in a complex conditionality.

The main facade is integrated within the closed building line of the street while its volume relates to the dispersed villa blocks of the Kissvábhegy, the hill above. The core of the sculptural volume continues the cornice height of the neighbouring building, while the corner risalit - an emphasising element of the classical architectural toolkit - mirrors the corner volume of the parent institution just across the street, linking the new building to the institutional character of the ensemble. The facades facing the hillside are characterised by more subtle dynamics. 

The notion of layeredness defines the building both in functional and formal terms. An interwoven network of medical, public and educational spaces is reflected in the facades, the interaction between space and mass become apparently visible. The brick cladding, emphasizing the monolithic character of the building 'erodes' in front of the publicly accessible spaces, structural framework and cladding separate. Behind the curtain walls of the waiting rooms at the lowered basement- and ambulant levels respectively the meeting rooms and auditorium on the top floor, transparent and light spaces emerge, while the medical spaces ensure more intimate working environment. 

Péter Kis, Ilka Demény, Orsolya Mátyus

Physical model by Ian Chaplin

BUDAPEST  EXTENSION  HOSPITAL  ILKA DEMÉNY  ORSOLYA MÁTYUS  PÉTER KIS