The 2024 Budapest Architectural Award Ceremony took place on 4 December at FUGA Budapest Centre of Architecture. This year, the jury granted one main prize and five commendations. 

The main prize went to the Gyöngyszem Kindergarten in District XIII. Alongside the Gellért Campus, the following projects also received commendations: the revitalisation of the Corvin Department Store in District VIII, the Metrodom Green residential complex in District IX, the Madárhegy Children’s Grove in District XI, and the municipal housing on Petneházy Street in District XIII. 

Gellért Campus: a refined new edition of its predecessor 

One of this year’s commended projects, the Gellért Campus, was led by chief designer György Ilku (Market Építő Zrt.), with architect Péter Kis (PLANT – Atelier Peter Kis Kft.) as the principal designer. The client was the Maecenas Universitatis Corvini Foundation, which maintains the university. 

According to the jury’s appraisal, the university and the architects set an ambitious goal: to build a university for the future based on plans shaped by a careful, participatory preparatory process, enriched with experimental, innovative and sustainable solutions. Instead of demolition, they chose adaptive reuse. The building gained a new white grid façade while preserving its original mass and structure. A new entrance now opens on the city-facing side, linked to a cantilevered porch reached by a flight of steps. Community spaces wrap around the auditorium, while above them rise the lower J Tower housing teaching rooms and the K Tower serving as the student residence. The top of the K Tower features a golden “crown”, created by transforming the former mechanical level into professors’ apartments and an event space, giving the building a distinctive, iconic character. 

Although the materials may appear entirely new, the Gellért Campus is essentially an improved edition of its predecessor. The material and spatial reserves embedded in modern buildings make reuse increasingly relevant, echoing long-standing traditions in which existing structures were treated as valuable, even when they carried ideological significance. Corvinus sets an example through the way it engages with the architectural heritage of the era, showing that the university of the future cannot be built without understanding the past. 

The commendation includes a cash prize, which Market Zrt. has offered to Bátor Tábor Foundation, a charity providing therapeutic recreational camps and programmes for seriously ill children and their families. 

Entries on display until 4 January 

The Municipality of Budapest and the Budapest Chamber of Architects launched an open call in July for the 2025 Budapest Architectural Award. The award recognises architectural achievements that shape the cityscape, honour its past, define its present and offer thoughtful responses to future challenges. The award, now in its 30th year, keeps its original aim: to showcase and celebrate developments that support the preservation of Budapest’s built heritage while guiding value-driven and forward-looking urban development in harmony with the city’s unique natural and landscape features. 

Eighteen submissions were received for this year’s competition (video summary available here), and the jury visited nine locations. Members of the panel were Zoltán Erő (Chief Architect of Budapest, chair), László Herczeg (President of the Budapest Chamber of Architects), Bálint Dományi (Head of the Rákosrendező Project Office), Sándor Bardóczi (Chief Landscape Architect of Budapest), and architects Péter Gereben, Flóra Perényi and Noémi Soltész. 

All submitted projects are displayed in an exhibition in the Breuer Hall of FUGA Budapest Centre of Architecture, open until 4 January. The works will also be published in the Budapest Architectural Award 2025 book in both Hungarian and English. The publication is available free of charge at the Secretariat of the Budapest Chamber of Architects and at FUGA. 

Sources: MTI, budapest.hu, Budapest Chamber of Architects, Market Zrt.