Érd isn't just the biggest suburban town, it is the twelfth biggest in Hungary. Yet is hasn't a well articulated center, nor proper public service infrastructure. The town is sprawling, its tissue is fragmented. Every new element that have entered the history of the town have all been ruined the urban fabric.
Not only the fabric, but also the operation of urban services is fragmented. The existing cultural centre is also a victim of this: it is no longer able to accommodate the increased demands. Its environment has completely changed since its construction, the architectural intent expressed during construction is becoming less and less valid. Thanks to accelerated and dense traffic, the entire capital has become a competitor to this house.
Traffic also has a bad influence on Érd: initially the main roads, then the railway, most recently the highways cut through the fabric of the town. Now it has became a part of the urban agglomeration of the capital. The lives of those who live in it are increasingly determined by commuting, by being continuously on the road. The town’s need to bring together cultural and other public services shows that they recognized that it needs to change scale.
The proposed building condenses the functions into one mass, in such a way that it appears day by day in the field of view of the commuters. It draws a definite line in the mix of housing complex, block-like and family house construction. The plan addresses the cultural needs of the townspeople, from serving the largest crowds to the individual: from a mass event organized in the square to browsing in the library, differentiating between different uses is achieved by classifying closed and open spaces.
The surface of the house has the ability to show the life flowing in it as a display, to grab attention, to be an advertising surface, a kind of medium, thus a shaper of the local life.
Not only the fabric, but also the operation of urban services is fragmented. The existing cultural centre is also a victim of this: it is no longer able to accommodate the increased demands. Its environment has completely changed since its construction, the architectural intent expressed during construction is becoming less and less valid. Thanks to accelerated and dense traffic, the entire capital has become a competitor to this house.
Traffic also has a bad influence on Érd: initially the main roads, then the railway, most recently the highways cut through the fabric of the town. Now it has became a part of the urban agglomeration of the capital. The lives of those who live in it are increasingly determined by commuting, by being continuously on the road. The town’s need to bring together cultural and other public services shows that they recognized that it needs to change scale.
The proposed building condenses the functions into one mass, in such a way that it appears day by day in the field of view of the commuters. It draws a definite line in the mix of housing complex, block-like and family house construction. The plan addresses the cultural needs of the townspeople, from serving the largest crowds to the individual: from a mass event organized in the square to browsing in the library, differentiating between different uses is achieved by classifying closed and open spaces.
The surface of the house has the ability to show the life flowing in it as a display, to grab attention, to be an advertising surface, a kind of medium, thus a shaper of the local life.