ERZSÉBET SQUARE CULTURAL CENTRE AND PARK

The architectural competition, held in 2000, set the aim to utilize the completed underground structures and foundations of the stopped construction works of the National Theatre by giving place to a cultural centre. In addition, the goal was to create an interconnected public space, which integrates the Deák Ferenc Square and the park of Erzsébet Square, generating the biggest contiguous green surface of the inner city.

The proposal wanted to make an organic framework including the functional system of the programme, the already built structure and the urban trajectories of the ground. Therefore, from the urban interchange of Deák Ferenc Square a representative outdoor stairway leads to the submerged agora. The foyer of the cultural centre opens up towards both this agora and the ground level park through a glass-slab bottom of an outdoor pool. Opened from the agora, the spaces of auditoriums, retail area and restaurant can operate both in a separated and an attached mode.