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ZUYD Hogeschool Master Interior Architecture, Maastricht

Idea projektu

The connection and transition between private and public spheres is the base of this project.
The location is in the centre of Budapest at the border of the old jewish ghetto wall. A minor backyard in a residential house with a complex situation.
The intention beside social, cultural and historical reflection, tries to develop contact between the community and to give an open appropriate memorial space for visitors in the backyard of the house.

Popis projektu

The project building is a dwelling house that is situated in the centre of Budapest, Hungary in the old jewish district.
The Jewish settlement started from the middle of 18th century and the community shaped the character and atmosphere of this place. The area still shows some Jewish features from the beginnings. The place had a characteristic atmosphere with small narrow streets, many trading facilities, shops and bars became an important part of the city life.
During the second World War the district was turned to a ghetto, where thousands of Jewish people were closed in behind a brick wall, thus dividing them from the rest of the population.
After the war the depopulation came for this area, the Jewish population decreased and during the communist times poorer social class people filled the empty apartments. With the lack of Jewish people the area also lost most of its atmosphere.
Nowadays the district has been getting more and more attention due to its central location, and its unique face. The population is also diverse in age, class, culture. The streets are full of life again. The Jewish community is still present although its not as visible as before, it doesn't reflect on the character as much. The traders and shops have been replaced by bars and restaurants, Nightlife is more active than daily life.
The ghetto wall has been partially demolished but there is still a small part standing as a memorial. The anatomical model which I plan to describe is situated at the border of this memorial brick wall. As the memorial wall is hidden in the backyard of the private dwelling house it causes conflict between the occasional tourist visitors and tenants of the house.

The building is a typical dwelling house from the 19th century. A three story high apartment building in a classicist style. A symmetric square floorpan with an inner court in the middle. The ground floor on the street side gives place for commercial tenements and the inside serves the tenants with 50 apartments. The apartments are accessible from the open corridors around the inner court on all 3 floors.
Now the house is in very bad condition and the facilities don not live up to modern comfort standards. The dilapidated house is a protected heritage site and still reveals some precious details of its onetime high status. More than half of the apartments are empty and current tenants are no longer middle class but low-income families. The atmosphere of this large apartment building is quiet and somber where the tenants individually try to make the place more homelike for themselves in a modest way.

Due to the bad condition of this house and lack of communal areas the community loses out. Tenants mistrusting each other keep their distance. Especially mistrustful of visitors who can only access the memorial wall by crossing the courtyard. As a result the in-between spaces and communal areas are neglected and empty. A quiet empty house in the centre of bustling Budapest.

My intention is to upgrade the communal areas and in-between spaces. In order to develop the communication between tenants and visitors I rethought the boarders and transitions between the public and private spheres. By keeping the original structure but redefining the connection of spaces. It would result in a liveable home and stronger community, plus a worthy memorial space to visitors. Including a sustainable commercial area for shops to keep the Jewish character of the area. To find the right boundaries and transitions, all these functions can be joined together into one unite. Within in one house the public, semi-private and private spaces can merge where mistrust does not let walls to be built between people again.

The approach is to make new layout on the ground floor where all functions and all spheres are connected. Only the open corridors around the inner court were rethought as an important in between space element. These corridors visually connect the apartments on the upper floors with public space on the ground floor.
After a new layout the openings on the street facade around house would give place for a suitable commercial areas and serve the public with shops as before. The inside spaces around the inner court would give new functions to the house by upgrading the facilities and the court yard.
This inner court would be the central place of the community surround by all the functions on the ground floor. The courtyard as an interior outdoor space would be the central point where all the spheres could meet and connect to each other, giving opportunity to the people to meet.

By giving a public space inside the private dwelling house, this visitor area would be transition between the commercial area and private courtyard. Due to my thesis conclusion all these spaces are separated by clear boundaries but not individual unites. They are connected and linked to each other without division. As a result the visitor has his/her an own entrance and route from the street to the ghetto wall.
The relation of the private and visitor area is the focus in the intervention. The way how they can work separately and being part of each other at the same time. Specific materials would solve the separations and the furnishings could connect them. Both of spaces would be treated equally to keep the house as one unite.


private area:

The tenants access the house through the main gate cross the vestibule to the inner court. My principal ideas would be the following:

The inner court’s parking space transformed into an interior garden as the original function claims.
The ground floor apartments would be transformed into different functions:
communal area, activity space, winter garden, bike storage, advertisement/mailbox, staircase, storage room. All these would be connected around the inner court.
All the doors and windows transformed into open doorways around the inner court.


visitor area:

1. Own entrance from the street to a memorial space.
2. The access from the street via open doorways ( glass doors are taken off) to extend the public street inside the house.
3. The memorial space starts with a vestibule introduction space with text.
4. From the entrance room a long corridor guides the visitors through the inner court to the backyard and the ghetto wall.
5. The visitor area is separated from the inner court only with the curtain mesh as a soft indicated boarder.

The stainless steel curtain mesh is the main material as a contrast to the solid, cold, harsh ghetto brick wall. This important element is a memento to the discrimination, which divided and enclosed people. I have chosen a transparent, undulating metal curtain mesh for separation as a symbolic contrast with the brick wall. This element would mean separation can work without enclosing. A transparent curtain keeps more visible connection between spaces.
The touch of this curtain compared with a brick wall reminds us that materials have strong influence on the people’s relations.
This curtain would go through between the private and public space from the street till the brick wall. A nearly 100 m long 4,6m high curtain hangs 10 cm above the ground by visually connecting spaces and people.

Technické informace

Cadastral, technical drawings, aquarelle and hand drawings, plaster models, terrazzo samples