Szervita Square is a state-of-the-art office and parking facility worthy of the Budapest district’s rich early 20th century architectural heritage. The concept and design comes from Zaha Hadid, recent winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize, and her Hungarian partner László Váncza.
The new building on Szervita Square will add to the overall cityscape of Budapest by providing a new enlarged public square and landmark building. The aim is to create a civic space within the project not only for those who use the building but for the city as a whole.
From the beginning, after collecting ideas about the light, the combination of landscapes, the building and the space itself, the idea was to move away from closed forms and the perimeter blocks that generally constitute the city, and to make the public zones more porous and open.
The design for the new building is said to fit with the architectural context, but is transparent creating a contrast to the idea of non-porosity and solidness of the existing buildings. Here one can perceive distinguished architectural periods in the development of Budapest’s inner city fabric. Szervita Square itself is an interesting example with high quality architecture from different periods; and this project is an opportunity to continue with this series and do something that can’t easily be done: to comply with the traditions of the city and create something new at the same time.
Address: 8 Szervita Square, H-1052 Budapest
Size: 47,022m2
Construction start: autumn 2008
Completion / Delivery: autumn 2010