Obudai Island (Sziget) Water Research Centre and Masterplan

Watercolour and digital perspective drawing of the frozen water tower and research centre

Also featured in the Architects Journal Pin Up, the Open Studio Westminster blog, the DS11 project reviews, the Open Studio Westminster Instagram highlights, and the University of Westminster MArch programme Instagram highlights.

Water tower in the winter

De-urbanasation tendency in Budapest – people living outside the inner city

The touristic area creates a virtual boundary within which most of the investment/development is kept

Brownfield zones in Budapest – unexploited areas dotted around the city

Diagram of potential evolution of the island’s built environment

Pixelated evolution – development of the grid infrastructure

Grid infrastructure to facilitate building

Water research centre – ground floor

view of the main public space in winter

It’s been a few stressful weeks, but here it is! The first completed project of my MArch journey.

A proposed water research center on Obudai Island in Budapest seeks to become a progenitor for long term redevelopment of the city’s neglected brownfield zones and specifically to facilitate building on the largest site of its kind in the emerging economic center of north Budapest.

Building on the empty land in Budapest is often prohibitively complicated for individuals due to legislation or requirements, a situation that seems to have no end in sight. Therefore, I imagined an initial larger public investment in the form of the iconic water tower, spreading its roots/foundations in a grid across the entire site, instantly welcoming others to join the infrastructure and create a new community. The water centre serving the Danube Transitional European Programme would be the first building to occupy some of the tiles created by the proposed infrastructure, amounting to only a 10th of the entire usable land. A publicly funded project would, therefore, create a model that allows others, private organisations or not, to contribute to the redevelopment of Obudai.

“a secondary water circuit drapes a waterfall in warm seasons and creates a frozen icicle in the winter, heroically signalling the ambitions of the area”

The tower, nucleus and landmark, is a helical arranged progression with a functional purpose of ensuring water pressure for north Obudai. However, a secondary water circuit drapes a waterfall in warm seasons and creates a frozen icicle in the winter, heroically signalling the ambitions of the area and extending the “border” of the touristic interest.