Location: 1091 Budapest, Üllői út 33-37.

Client: Museum of Applied Arts

Planning: 2017-2019

Scale: interior design 12.800 m² (building 33.100 m²)

Architecure: Vikár and Lukács Architects Studio (2012-2019)

Original designers: Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos (1890-1896)

Interior design: LAB5 architects | Linda Erdélyi, András Dobos, Balázs Korényi, Virág Anna Gáspár, Rebeka Sipos | Judit Nyerges, Zoltán Szegedi | Fruzsina Barta, Blanka Bató, Zoltán Kozma, Benedek Kupi, Eszter Macsuga, Ádám Mester, Petra Mezey, Bálint Szelezsán, Annamária Tóth

Signage: Zsuzsi Tolnai

Pattern design: picidia | Diána Nagy

Visuals: AXION visual

 

The Museum of Applied Arts of Budapest was founded in 1872 between the first ones of its kind in Europe. The designer of the building of the museum and the school was selected by the government in 1890, the winner of the competition were Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos with their proposal titled “Go East, Hungarians!” following a unique, sometimes personal art nouveau approach with Islamic, Hindu, Mogul elements, quite path-finder by that time.

 

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The building was inaugurated by Franz Joseph (Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary) in 1896, and it was handed over for the broader public audience in the following year. The collection is one of the biggest in the world by scale and importance. The specialty of this institution is that almost every kind of restoration worker has workshops in this same building. The house was damaged several times during the 20th century, and the quality of the restoration was never perfect. Today it is standing in bad conditions and obsolete.

Lukacs and Vikar Architects Studio won the competition of the refurbishment and extension in 2012. Their proposal tripled the exhibition area and respected all the value of the historic building. The museum started the moving out in 2018 in order to start construction works later. LAB5 architects won the competition for the interior design in 2017. The main focus is to create atmospheres that hosts the new functions, provides an interactive and exciting visitor experience, and respects and emphasizes the historical values of the monument. Unfortunately only some of the first visuals from the first sketch design are public.

To get know more about the refurbishment project, please turn to the Museum or the architects.