Gizella Campus

The new owner Wing Zrt. announced an invitation-only architectural design competition in 2021 for the utilization and redefinition of the area in Budapest, District XIV, bordered by Hungária körút – Semsey Andor utca – Gizella út, in which process we won the opportunity for further masterplanning. 

According to the investor’s vision, the entire area would have been redeveloped as predominantly office use in a nearly 10-year, multi-stage demolition and construction process. The telephone factory manufacturing world-class products had operated on this originally industrial property for 90 years. In this ensemble, the building by the architects Lauber and Nyíri, completed in 1941, is still a defining element to this day. In recent decades, Siemens has owned the nearly 3.5-hectare area. This was the time, when the building designed by the Reimholz-Lázár duo, which has since become iconic, was also built along Hungária körút (1999). Our masterplan preserved both buildings and made them part of a structure that, implemented in several phases, retains the valuable aspects ​​of the area while developing and renewing it. 

The main goal of the plan was to create the largest possible contiguous green space and internal park in the centre of the estate of considerable size. The buildings embracing the central park are located on the perimeter of the area, along the roads, thus maximizing the approximately 1.5-hectare size of the central park, which is accessible from all three surrounding streets. The main entrance of the park and the new Gizella Campus was kept in a clear position, which we marked with a new vertical element that fits into the series of high masses that – on an urban architectural scale – appear with relative regularity along the boulevard. Car storage has been placed below ground level on the entire site. 

We have already designed the first element of the project, the office building on the empty plot on Gizella út, but the implementation has stalled, and we are currently investigating other options for development at the request of the Client. The design included here is our original concept for the entire site, accepted by the Developer.