Archinect - News

Budapest's "Ruin Bars"

2012-10-17T20:16:00-04:00

... they started opening up in abandoned (but interesting) buildings where nobody wanted to spend the money to restore them to their former glory. Some didn’t have a roof (and still don’t), while others had a big courtyard offering ample space for revelers. Set up a bar, get the toilets working, and you’re set. Eventually some expanded to take over several adjoining buildings. The first ones were a success, others followed, and now they’re a fixture on the nightlife circuit...

ONL completes Central European Time building in Budapest

2012-08-15T17:50:00-04:00

The CET mixed use development in Budapest as designed by the architects of ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] in Rotterdam has recently been handed over to the City of Budapest.

The CET is the sole building in Budapest that is built directly at the embankments of the Danube river, the terraces separated by a bicycle path only, while elsewhere busy roads disconnect the city from the river.

CET means Central European Time. The City of Budapest has released a contest to find a name for the multifunctional center, which apart from many restaurants and bars also is home to design oriented shops and a large multifunctional event space fit for concerts, congresses and exhibitions. Already over 400 entries are submitted, proving the immense popularity of the design among the inhabitants of Budapest.

The CET connects the old warehouses with the new muscular body. The snout of the glass whale as it often referred to in the press and by the general public juts out over the plaza at the S...

An architect appalled at communism and consumerism alike

2011-10-03T19:27:01-04:00

Visitors to the Hungarian pavilion at the 1992 Seville Expo came in from the searing heat to a cavernous, dark space with a great curving roof like a cathedral. At its centre was a tree, brought from the Hungarian plains, stripped bare and set into a glass floor so that its roots, which stretched as far and wide as its branches, were made visible. It was the work of Hungarian architect Imre Makovecz, who has died aged 75.