As the leader of the company, I have been in the business for over 20 years. I have participated in several successful international and national design competitions. My attitude toward architecture has always been centered on a progressive, innovative and personalized solutions. Examples of this include the international design competition success of the camera obscura design of the Clark Hotel in Budapest, the Budapest Nívó Prize for the Corvin Corner office building in Budapest designed with Studio 100, and the international design competition for the kindergarten in Vienna designed with an alternative concept of space. For more than 15 years I have been a lecturer in the Department of Public Building Design at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Architecture. While teaching design, I try to make this kind of experimental, collaborative approach with visual artists attractive to students. It is this kind of dedication that gave birth, more than 10 years ago, to the architectural studio I have been running, partly with my students. It's important for us to think about space and architecture in a forward-looking, collaborative way. All our work is unique and the result of teamwork and an interdisciplinary approach. The designers involved in the projects are all independent creators, who also design their own unique and high-quality works. Our exhibition installation has been selected as a finalist for the Hungarian Media Award.
Project description in English
CONTEXT
The temporary exhibition, presenting a historical and technological overview of bicycling, was installed in the spacious Diesel Hall of the Northern Vehicle Repair in Budapest, one of the Museum of Transport's significant industrial heritage sites. The refurbishment and cultural use of the entire railway repair complex began a few years ago, and the exhibition "The Cycling Shift" opened in the summer of 2023 as one of the first steps in this process. The organisers also wanted to create an experience, which is why the exhibition design and the curatorial concept were closely intertwined.
CONCEPT: SUSPENSION
The installation as a whole is based on the functional principle of the bicycle and its wheels: in analogy to the tensioned spokes and the bicycle frame "suspended" on the wheels, the bicycles on display are levitated by steel suspension wires, while underneath them a white ribbon bearing the labels rests on hundreds of thin, encased steel rods. The tension cables are tied into the reinforced concrete structure of the building, making the installation an integral part of the monumental industrial hall.
The finesse of the bicycle's structure is reflected in the light framework of the installation, while its complex structure is represented by a vehicle disassembled into its component parts. The tiny suspended elements are composed to form a complete bicycle, similar to the way the multitude of bicycles on display (more than 100 exhibits) form a dense suspended chandelier above the central table of the exhibition.
THREE ORGANISATION PRINCIPLES
One of the starting ideas for the layout of the installation was the feeling of cycling - the experience of flow, a linear, continuous path where you can move through the whole exhibition without interruption, as opposed to the classical way of visiting a museum or exhibition, divided into rooms. On the other hand, the route is accompanied by a white ribbon winding between the structural columns of the hall, sometimes accelerating, sometimes slowing down, where the exhibits and information are dense. An important aspect was that the ribbon frames the exhibition, but does not completely separate it from the surrounding hall space. Finally, the white suspended parapet that runs around the background works in a similar way, obscuring the locomotives and buses scattered around the hall, but preserving the completeness and continuity of the space when viewing above and below.
