The main profile of PARAGRAM is the planning of transport architecture projects and other complex, community-focused developments. In addition to architectural, urban planning and landscape architecture tasks, they also deal with the development of wayfinding systems.
PARAGRAM Studio was founded in 2018 by Balázs CSAPÓ, Tibor GERMÁN and Annamária BRETZ. Their choice of name ('paragramma' = wordplay based on the exchange of letters; literally ‘beyond the letter’) faithfully reflects their liberated, yet deeply responsible and linguistically conscious basic attitude. Landscape architects Flóra POTTYONDY and Sándor LIZICZAI joined the company at the beginning of 2023 with the merger of Park Studio. PARAGRAM is the general legal successor of PALATIUM M4 Projekt, architect general of the stations of M4 metro line.
PARAGRAM's expertise is decisive in the architectural design of urban railways. In connection with metro, commuter railway and railway stations, their references also cover the design of individual furniture and of wayfinding systems. They contribute to the clarification of complex urban design issues through the preparation of master plans, strategic documents and urban studies. They took part in the renovation of several parks and public spaces in Budapest. They work in close professional cooperation with the largest engineering offices in Hungary, their clients are transport companies, municipal and state organizations, and a small number of private investors.
Project description in English
The Budapest M3 metro line is Hungary's busiest railway, and its stations are the most visited public spaces in the capital. Since the original design was an icon of the 1970’s and 1980’s, the line has become a key landmark of urban life. Its overall reconstruction was one of the most important urban renewal projects in Budapest in the last decade.
Inclusive design and sustainability were central considerations in the whole project: the main aim was to bring an existing urban infrastructure up to modern standards in a cost-effective way, with the least possible urban disruption and the most focused technical interventions.
Deák Ferenc tér station is a distinguished hub of the Budapest metro network: three metro lines (M1, M2, M3) intersect here. To facilitate orientation, the new architectural concept makes the space understandable as a graph of nodes and connecting linear spaces. Static spaces (entrance halls, distribution and waiting areas) are characterised by neutral shapes and richly detailed textures, while dynamic spaces (pedestrian routes and escalator shafts) are characterised by dynamic shapes and brightly coloured cladding. The renewed image with its transparency, bright and cheerful colours and attractive surfaces reinterprets the original retro architecture and also promotes public transport for all.
At the -2 level of the underground complex a vestibule represents the entrance of the station. The free-floating individual luminaires create an imaginative plane under the false ceiling made of gleaming expanded aluminium sheets. At the platform Portuguese artist João Rodrigues Vieira's 1996 letter tiles were carefully restored, the artwork stands out in its moderate setting. The section of the interlinking corridors was reshaped: the cladding unites the two tunnels into one, this new abstract form evokes the space-age of the construction. With additional mining a new elevator was constructed that serves as an accessible and secondary entrance.
