Downtown office

Client: Multinational service intermediary company

Size: 1100 m2

Location: Budapest

Architect: Andrea Baktay

Services: Interior design

Sectors: Office, Residential

In the summer of 2020, we were commissioned to develop a space plan and design concept for a downtown office relocation project by a domestic subsidiary of an international company. The assignment turned out to be so charming that a few weeks later, we delivered a much more spectacular solution than expected.

Modern office interior
in an apartment building listed as a historical monument.

Harmony between architecture and image

Building

The two-storey tenement building in the Andrássy Avenue area was built during the reign of Franz Joseph I. The 1871 zoning plan created a unified architectural environment in the center of Budapest, and today this prominent area has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Andrassy Avenue.

Façade drawing (1891)

Detail sketch (1891)

Ground floor plan (1891)

Site plan (1891)

Floor plan (1891)

Staircase sectional drawing (1891)

Excerpt from the description (1891)

Permit plan detail (1974)

Permit plan detail (1974)

Spaceplan

The space plans for the downtown office were drawn up on the basis of available hand-drawn plans from 1990 and a design program that included the planned staff expansion.

Concept design

Our client wanted to achieve a well-functioning, minimal, honest architectural solution with an industrial feel, unique and reflective of the company’s image. As part of this, in addition to the use of dark red, white and grey branding colors, it was also important to use natural materials (brick, wood, exposed mechanicals, electrical wiring, etc.).

Mood board

Immediately after the spaceplan was approved, we started planning the design: the finishes, materials, and surfaces were put together on a mood board to give a sense of the intended feel and style of the office.

Concept plan

Our concept was to combine architectural heritage with 21st-century modern workspaces to create a truly unique and inspiring working environment. We planned to incorporate suspended corridors to make the office as spacious as possible. The demarcation was designed with a special, lockable, movable on rails, translucent, and always changing façade solution.

Transmit heritage of architectural values

We planned to incorporate suspended corridors to make the office as spacious as possible.

There are several advantages of a lockable suspended corridor

Green spaces, clean shapes

We have used a number of creative solutions

We integrated the motivating workspaces with a classic look

Combining several different styles to achieve a clean effect

Classic architectural forms dominate the space intact

We have consciously combined modern technology and materials

A distinctive but harmonious appearance in the space

Visualization

Based on the adopted moods and image requirements, members of our interior design team dreamt up several different visual solutions for the downtown office. Each of these reflected the client’s needs, but the many subtle differences meant that they took a markedly different direction from each other. These were easy for our client to choose from, and by September 2020, the design package that fully met their requirements was ready.

In harmony with dynamic shapes and classic brick paving

Spacious, bright spaces

clean, minimalist design

Matching colours in each room

Office workstation in an industrial environment

21st century office relaxation in a loft-like space

An innovative meeting room with a valuable heritage

Architectural and sectoral concept plans

Following the submission of the design package, we proposed to prepare an architectural and sectional concept for the building, which would examine the issues, regulations, codes, and other constraints from an architectural, fire, structural, mechanical, and electrical point of view, and would also identify the necessary diagnostic tests and specialist advice.

(Mood images from Pinterest)

Downtown office

Team

BuildEXT
Lead Architect: Andrea Baktay
Architectural design staff: Attila Tóth, Attila Póllai
Designers: Iryna Mykytenko, Dávid Cserháti, Levente Goda

Disciplines
Static: Géza Balázs
Building Engineering: Tibor Borsos
Electrical: Szilveszter Benke
Fire protection: Zsolt Fenyvesi

Photo & CGI
BuildEXT