Residential Development on Nánási Road

We were invited to participate in a design competition for a large, currently vacant site on Nánási Road extending as far as the Római-part promenade running along the Danube river. The task promised a well-scaled development and building volumes of an appealing size, so we were pleased to take on the challenge. We sought to capture the atmosphere of “Római” — the world of boathouses and recreation — with large terraces and as many water-facing views as possible.

The most important question was to determine the number of buildings. On the one hand, we aimed for a low number of apartments per building and a clustered arrangement that would allow the best possible floor plans; on the other hand, by keeping the number of buildings as low as possible, we also had to ensure open views across the site and a rational number of circulation cores. In the end, we opted for six buildings, generally with layouts containing three or four units per core. With regard to parking, although we basically designed underground garages, we also retained the possibility of surface parking by making use of the ground floors, which were partly left open due to the flood risk, thus avoiding the construction of basements in response to the high water table.

In our design, we also specifically considered access to the apartments in the event of flooding. We proposed to resolve this with a mobile bridge system, and positioned the building cores in such a way that they could also be reached from the first floor.