Winner Announced for 320fok Cultural Centre, Siófok, Hungary

The 320fok Contemporary Cultural Centre of Siófok, Hungary is being rebulit until 2012 - from an industrial space that was the former Bread Factory - according to the winning architectural plans that were announced last Friday. The First Prize winning project is the work of Tarnóczky Tamás Attila (Építészkohó Kft.).

Below is the press release.

According to the competition tender, the 320fok Art Gallery, operating since 2007 in the industrial buildings of the former Bread Factory, is being rebuilt to become a worldclass contemporary cultural, educational and technical centre with notable architectural values.

Earlier this year, the City of Siófok had announced an international architectural tender aiming the complex re-building of 320fok and its utilization as a cultural centre. The institution established the presence of the region within the fields of contemporary art since 2007. It has been offering exhibition space to the representation of highly qualified, and professionaly acclaimed artworks as well as professional events, which successfully linked Siófok to the progressive national institutions that promote and represent contemporary art. The award winning architectural plan is going to transform the industrial space to a multifunctional, transformable exhibition teritory, with a high class gallery and gastronomic units.

The primary aim behind the environmental reconstruction is to build an iconic cultural establishment that could be the key feature element of the image of Siófok. It should as well provide space to 3 basic functions (artistic, educational, technical) and to additional functions such as gastronomical and commercial functions on the highest possible level, according to the key features of contemporary architecture and design. The first shedule plan of the reconstruction - cca 6500 sqm building and parking space – is being built until 2012, while the second schedule plan is due to be finished by the end of the decade.

By the help of the major architectural project that operates with an investment of 3 to 5 billion HUF ($15M to $25M) on an area of 12.5 thousand sqm, the region is going to be enriched with a multifunctional institution that, on a national basis could only be linked to MODEM in Debrecen or the European Capital of Culture museum investments of the city of Pécs. Siófok and the region of South-Balaton, that is only an hour driving distance form the capital, could have the chance to provide quality entertainment and culturally valuable programms not only in the short, 3 months summer holiday period, but throughout the year. Another important factor supporting this process is that the proportion of cultural turism within the EU is currently in a dinamic rise.

A total of 74 architects and architectural institutions have bought he documentation of the reconstructional plan tender of 320fok. Until the competition deadline, a notably high amount of plans, 64 works came in, from which the jury awarded 4 projects, suggested 3 projects for exclusive purchase, and 7 for purchase to the announcer of the competition, in which the jury found remarkable features and elements of future importance. The announcers of the competition have spent a total of 33 million HUF for the awarding and the purchase of the plans.

It is important to note, just for the comparison, that the number of compeeting plans, and the amount of the awards meets the level of the Architectural competition announced for the complementation and environmental reconstruction of the Hungarian National Museum. This means that the industry understood the intention of the announcers, which was to help transform the future of Siófok and its region with the help of an interntionally exclaimable professional competition.

The First Prize Award winning project is trhe work of Tarnóczky Tamás Attila (Építészkohó Kft.)

Quotation form the Jury judgement:

The jury found the sharp and dinamic gesture of the plan iconic and embelmatic, and appreciated the uniqueness and originality of the building. The scale of the new building is brave and proportional. Despite the hugh size it shows a friendly relationship with the landscape and the suburban environment. It’s contact with the highway is dynamic, impressive and emblematic.

The unique, pure and harmonic composition predestinates the work to a lighthouse part that points further form the city and the region itself. Due to its symbol-building caracter and inspirational operational vision, next to its remarkable intellectual values the work stresses out the practical topics, such as gradualness, scheduleability and profitability. With its unique caracter it could easily become and emblematic building not it terms of the city of Siófok or the region, but further on a national basis.

The jury comprised a number of highly qualified and respectable architects and professionals from a cultural field.

• Chair: Prof. Dr. Moravánszky Ákos címzetes univ.prof., academic lecturer of the Department of Architecture History and Theory, and the Swiss University of Arts.
• Secretary of the competition: Turányi Gábor DLA, Ybl-awarded architect, professor of University a Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design
• The delegate of the Chamber of Architects was Fegyverneki Sándor national chief architect
• Participating members of Jury: Juhász László, the owner of the idea of the competition
• Király Zoltán architect,
• Lantay Attila cheaf architect at Central Transdanubia Regional Governmental Offiice and the collaborator of the National Cheaf Architectural Office
• Ripszám János Ybl-awarded architect,
• Sz. Szilágyi Gábor art historian, the creative director of 320fok
• Martinkó József architecture critic, editor in chief, journalist

Non-voting consultants of the Jury: Dr. Incze Ádám solicitor, Szabó Lajos structural engineer and Gyurkovics Zoltán building services engineer and Mátrai Péter architect.