Nagyszikla — Budapest Zoo rock reconstruction

Architectural Design Competition with Peter Kis architect — First prize

Architectural design competition on the rehabilitation of the artificial mountain in the zoo of Budapest.

The use of the interior of this mountain was already planned in the original proposal. The pork hair reinforced concrete skin of the mountain is held by a spectacular organic concrete structure. The almost half meter wide beams and arcs seem to fill the space arbitrarily — looks like an abandoned religious place somewhere in a jungle, invaded by the monkeys of the zoo that lives mainly on the surface of the mountain. We, absolutely impressed and followed by this particular feeling were intending to incorporate this vision in the project. We wanted to find, maintain and mark the physical characters of this ambient, trying to construct a trace through the interior that involve the necessary functions, but in the same time create a course that gives to the visitors the experience of discovering the secrets of the space and the structure. The possible zones for construction were investigated through 3d modeling, looking for continuous flows, ergonomic space fragments.

Aerial photograph of the artificial mountain.

The structure of the mountain is fairly chaotic. The level of structural engineering at that time did not allow proper calculations, so the loads are carried by an ad hoc system that grew while constructed.

However, there are some continuous voids that leave space for our intervention.

In the massive dome of the mountain, we proposed a spiral pathway. By aligning to the non-geometrical dome, we achieve a fossil like attitude.