Unpretentious luxury family house on Svábhegy. Our article from Octogon magazine, issue 172 (2021/8).
In a quiet, forest-lined cul-de-sac in Svábhegy, a long popular neighbourhood of Budapest’s XII district, you will find an unusually modern apartment building among the historical buildings. In this case, “stumbled upon” is a very apt term, as the clean, minimalist, truly 21st century, Western European building, which blends in with its surroundings, is not at all ostentatious, and does not seek to draw attention to itself.
The trend in modern villa building is that architects too often focus on the preservation of historic buildings, sometimes at all costs; here they have clearly gone against this – perhaps – outdated idea. This house dares to be innovative, to break with tradition and to transpose modern architectural solutions in a forward-looking way into the classical Buda environment.
The plot is very close to nature, with a lush garden in front and a small forest behind the house. Towards the woods, a narrow flight of stairs leads up to the rear façade, which offers a truly impressive view – one of the curiosities of the building is that it can be walked around completely. Not surprisingly, however, the steepness of the terrain in this part of the city has created considerable architectural difficulties. Previously, a derelict house stood here, which was completely demolished, but the location of its vast terrace marked the boundaries of the new facility, its position in the space and the height of each floor.
In the end, the lines of the house were designed to blend in with the natural surroundings, almost becoming one with them, while the interior design could become a direct continuation and extension of the airy, spacious plot. The architectural and interior design concept of the house was created by DIIM (István Bényei and Sarolta Halmos), which believes in not designing houses, but in creating value by making the most of the available land to the benefit of the house. This is exactly what happened in this case. ……