House with many Gardens

Murum Studio, founded by Daniel László Baló in 2016, is a Budapest-based architectural atelier. Daniel's educational background includes studying architecture at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest (MOME), the Technical University of Lisbon, and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK) in Copenhagen. Before establishing Murum Studio, he gained experience working with firms such as Atelier Peter Zumthor, RCR Arquitectes, and John Pawson​. His studio received several architectural awards and he has been an invited lecturer, guest critic and jury member on several occasions for international competitions and prizes (UIA Great Green Wall competition, AA visiting school Budapest, Architecture Masterprize). In 2016 Daniel co-founded “studioB”, a degree level course at MOME. Focusing on the abstract relation between nature and humans the studio realized various on-site projects in Holland (OEROL festival), Spain (Más Madera) and Hungary. Murum Studio is constantly experimenting in blurring the boundaries between various architectural dichotomies: occupied and empty, mass and void, old and new, natural and artificial. This is achieved through a deep understanding of the existing, the meticulous application of material knowledge, and a focus on sensory and intuitive design principles. The studio focuses on the transformative extension of existing buildings but also engages in designing new constructions and creating both temporary and permanent installations.

The duplex house, situated in the outskirts of Érd, presents a hermetic facade towards the adjacent neighbors: the longitudinal structural walls are robust and thick, while the building reveals itself expansively in the east and west directions, with the end walls constructed from prefabricated timber frame. To the south, elongated, narrow windows placed directly beneath the roofline, while the northern facade remains windowless. Expansive lift-and-slide doors and terrace doors open towards the east and west, seamlessly integrating indoor and outdoor spaces. Architecturally, the house's massing creates an introspective design, providing an intimate internal environment with various gardens and terraces. The spatial configuration ensures direct garden access from all rooms. The interior volumes reflect their functional requirements through differentiated ceiling heights: the bedrooms and service blocks feature lower ceilings, whereas the living and kitchen areas, elevated above the rest, gain south-facing windows just beneath the roof plane. The two apartments share a communal winter garden (summer kitchen) that connects to the internal garden area associated with the pool, fostering a sense of community and shared outdoor space. Pedestrian access runs along the southern property boundary, under a delicate pergola for climbing plants, leading to the winter garden, positioned at the confluence of the two apartments. This area also houses a lift and staircase ascending from the garage: this marks the arrival point, from which both apartments are accessible via a covered walkway. The garage design prioritizes maintaining the front garden as an open, verdant area. Therefore, vehicles are housed on the basement level, accessed via a ramp in the side garden, alongside the workshop and storage rooms. The timber-frame flat roofs extend significantly in all directions, protecting the facades from driving rain (the natural plaster and wooden cladding) and shielding the house walls from intense summer sunlight, shading the windows. The material palette of the house is deliberately simple, reinforcing the conceptual clarity: the walls are treated with natural, earth-toned textured plaster, while the lightweight end walls are clad in treated, dark-hued larch or pine.