4-unit residential building, Buda

Felső Svábhegyi út, Budapest, 12th District

Originally, a one-storey family home occupied the 1952m2 plot. It first received a retroactive building permit in 1894. Later it was expanded. The surrounding buildings show a diverse picture: there are multi-storey residential buildings, unattached family homes as well as rowhouses the majority of which were built in the 1960s and 70s. Typically, on the neighboring plots and across the street unattached structures were erected on the front half of the plots.

Construction

Primary goal in positioning the four apartments was to provide SE or SW orientation for the living rooms. The development was created from two linked cubes on the plot with the upper levels offset at half the area of the floor below. Each cube comprises two apartments. In line with effective regulations, the upper level had to be offset to ensure optimal utilisation honouring the height restrictions.

Orientation

The building was set in the front half of the plot to match the street’s architectural style and to meet district regulations. We positioned all the service areas and the nucleus of the connecting passageways on the north side facing the street, and giving the living and sleeping spaces in all four apartments a SE or SW orientation. In addition, three garden areas, offset by 100 to 150 cm from one another, were created facing south. Two of the three garden areas are linked to two ground-floor apartments with exclusive access, while the third one is used by the community.

Design: 2018