Under "The great rock"
11/06/2012.
By PLANT - Atelier Peter Kis [Budapest] Hungría
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA, LUIS DE GREGORIO
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA, LUIS DE GREGORIO
The modified concept vision is a cave, carved into the rock block. The new mass forms a crystal-like structure inside the rock that extends into the existing reinforced concrete structure. The shell of the broken form is self-supporting, the new structure following the historically protected reinforced framework of the Great Rock.
A kind of dramaturgy has an important role to play, which builds on wandering and observation within the space. The visitor can continuously walk in and out of the new crystal structure, providing the option to admire alternatively one or the other structure from external or internal viewpoints. This experience is reinforced by the observation openings positioned at distinct points.
The reconstruction added 3,000 m2 of flexible internal space to the 1909 concept (which only intended to utilise a section of the rock), and in addition, the use of renewable energy became one of the guiding threads. The heat from the thermal water feeding the Széchenyi Bath next to the Zoo has also been utilised, with the inclusion of a heat exchange system to supply renewable energy to the Great Rock, amongst the 30 buildings of the Zoo. With this, the operation itself was placed on a more sustainable basis.
The Magical Mountain exhibition (Life museum), designed for the internal space of the Great Rock, has set as the objectives - a unique and spectacular presentation of the special life forms that have appeared on the stage of life that is Earth, of the development of life and its impressive richness, where the audience may meet “wondrous rarities”. The principal thread is provided by the multiplicity of life forms and of living and non-living systems, where diversity is interpreted as a response to the challenges of the environment as well as to the problems to be solved; its unique true-to-life appearance is achieved through a range of extremely varied exhibition-technology devices that take advantage of the space.
Architecture: PLANT – Atelier Peter Kis kft.
Architect: Péter Kis
Architects - Bea Molnár, Péter Nyitrai, Tamás Ükös
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Staff: Péter Romvári, Orsolya Hőna, Péter Hámori, Róbert Erdélyi, Piroska Varga, Ádám Potzner.
Renders, plans: PLANT – Atelier Peter Kis.