Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

Building Budapest

As the cultural, political and economic potential of the Hungarian capital continues to gain recognition, Scott Berman meets the architects designing the world-class structures that the city deserves

He’s the irrational one,” Nóra Demeter jokes about her business partner and fellow architect, Gábor Zoboki. Then she gets serious, describing him as a natural leader and the “strong, creative spark and spirit” of their firm, Zoboki-Demeter & Associates Architects (ZDA, www.zda.hu), in Budapest. Currently, that creative spark must be crackling, as ZDA buildings dot the evolving cityscape. And nowhere is the vision and scope of the company’s work more evident than at the Palace of Arts, a €130m centre that’s been a cultural mecca for locals and tourists alike since it opened in 2005.

Demeter and Zoboki’s story is about business. As lead architects, they manage a staff of 25 (all but three are architects), and their firm’s revenues last year were about €500,000, according to Demeter. ZDA’s portfolio is diverse, with a range of urban design, residential, industrial, commercial, office and cultural projects, including a research and office building for pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter Ltd and an HIE Fonte furniture store in Budaörs outside the capital. Another key corporate venture is the regional headquarters of Norwegian telecommunications giant Telenor, a 34,890m2 structure in Törökbálint completed in 2008, while the firm has also lent expertise to projects in Italy and Russia.

Two’s company

This story is also about two professionals with different backgrounds, who share, Demeter says, “a commitment to excellence –100%.” Zoboki established his reputation in Hungarian architecture at a young age, working on large-scale urban planning and other projects. He designs the way he learned – with inspiration and a sharp pencil. While he acknowledges that the process of visualisation enabled by today’s computer design technology “has opened new avenues in the realm of design,” he asserts that, “One can never abandon the traditional pencil and sketch paper approach… Unlike most of our office, I still use the pencil. I sketch, I reflect, and sometime the scanned sketches become the template for a developing concept.”

What’s it like working with him? András Csonka, the Palace of Art’s assistant director, says Zoboki is “very open-eyed… [and] the kind of architect who feels concerned with the building he created even after having created it. He often comes to concerts… so his photo is hung in the dressing-room of the hostesses; everyone should recognise him and let him in wherever he appears.”

Demeter, meanwhile, was born and raised in San Francisco – her parents were among the 200,000 people who fled Hungary during the revolution of 1956. She continued to be drawn to her Hungarian roots while growing up, and periodically visited her grandmother in Budapest. She went on to study at the University of California, Berkeley, and then Yale University, where she took her master’s degree in architecture in the early 1990s. Part of her studies involved a Fulbright scholarship to go to Budapest and study architecture. This was in 1989 and 1990, during the dramatic changes that came with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and suffice to say, it made an impression. After her time at Yale, Demeter returned to Budapest in 1993, intending to stay only for a year – but she was captivated by the city and has lived and worked there ever since.

Perfect partners

Thanks to mutual friends, Zoboki and Demeter became business partners in 1997. They and architect Zoltán Turi own ZDA, respectively handling design, finance and project coordination. Demeter is married, while Zoboki remains, according to Demeter, one of Budapest’s “ultimate eligible bachelors.” Together, they’ve built a substantial firm. The business structure for the Palace of Arts project is telling: ZDA was the designer, with TriGranit the real estate developer and Arcadom the general contractor (firms that are also based in Budapest). A public-private partnership between the developer and the Hungarian government and a pioneering arrangement for projects of this scale in Central Europe, it’s on the site of TriGranit’s Millennium City Center, a €500m cultural, office and retail complex covering 5.5 hectares on the bank of the Danube.

According to Csonka, ZDA have created a “21st-century building with high quality, modernity and functionality. The technological infrastructure is also highly versatile and equipped to host performances of any genre and almost any scale. Therefore the Palace of Arts became the vivid cultural citadel of Budapest.” He points out the architects’ use of a variety of materials, including wood, marble, glass and granite – “all inspired by nature.” He also appreciates ZDA’s use of narrow corridors leading to the spacious Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, “giving a specially harmonised interior.”

Soon after the Palace opened, officials from Shenzhen, China, a sister city of Budapest, toured the Hungarian capital and the Palace. They liked what they saw, essentially saying, “We want something like this,” for their planned Nanshan Cultural Center and Museum. Hence ZDA’s next big commission, now under construction in China and slated to open in 2012.

Bright future

The firm’s work continues along a broad front, with prospects generally heightened by what Demeter describes as a growing recognition of the “political, cultural and economic potential still to be tapped” in Budapest, a city that “could become the regional capital”. Much work remains to be done, however. Zoboki puts it this way: “Although the city has undergone enormous transformations in the past decades, many urban problems remain unattended.”

Big notions like those drive businesses, entrepreneurs, planners and professionals across sectors in Budapest. But it all comes down to the personal experience of making the effort. Demeter, for example, now enjoys going to the Palace of Arts to see performances. Drinking in both the artistry on the stage and, inevitably, the features and space of the architectural surroundings she helped to create, she reflects: “I feel my return to Hungary was a true calling.”

Recipe for success

ZDA shares some top tips for building a business

Never underestimate the value of local support. This is especially important when doing business in Budapest.

Build a diverse team. Different skills, perspectives, strengths, backgrounds, experiences and personalities can enrich your organisation and achieve your goals. It’s also a source of stimulating professional dialogue.

Creativity combined with the ability to bring in projects on time and on budget is absolutely essential.

Be responsible to be successful. It takes a combination of skill, dedication and an unwavering commitment to clients.

Listen and respond to your clients. Sometimes your clients can’t define exactly what they want; you can help them to do so.

Always deliver original, responsive solutions. Do what it takes to make that happen.

FR Construire Budapest

À l’heure où la reconnaissance du potentiel culturel, politique et économique de la capitale hongroise ne cesse de grandir, Scott Berman a rencontré les architectes des aménagements urbains de niveau international que la ville mérite

Les bâtiments imaginés par Zoboki-Demeter & Associates Architects (ZDA, zda.hu) sont partout à Budapest. Les architectes Nóra Demeter et Gábor Zoboki dirigent une équipe de 25 personnes et ont enregistré un chiffre d’affaires d’environ € en 2009. Leurs projets vont du design urbain au résidentiel, en passant par l’industriel, le commercial, les bureaux et les établissements culturels. Zoboki s’est très tôt taillé une réputation dans le domaine en Hongrie. S’il reconnaît que la conception assistée par ordinateur « a ouvert de nouvelles portes », il soutient cependant qu’« on ne pourra jamais enterrer le crayon et le croquis ». Demeter, elle, est née à San Francisco, de parents qui ont fui la Hongrie durant la révolution de 1956. Elle est retournée à Budapest après des études d’architecture à Yale. Zoboki et Demeter se sont associés en 1997. Nulle part la vision de leur société n’est plus évidente qu’au Palais des Arts, un projet à 130 millions d’euros inauguré en 2005. Selon Adrás Csonka, le directeur assistant du Palais, ZDA a créé « un bâtiment du 21e siècle de haute qualité, moderne, fonctionnel et harmonieux (…) devenu aujourd’hui la citadelle culturelle de Budapest ».

Les perspectives de la société s’annoncent prometteuses grâce à ce que Demeter décrit comme la reconnaissance croissante du « potentiel dormant » de Budapest. Selon Zoboki, « bien que la ville ait connu d’énormes transformations (…) il reste de nombreux problèmes urbanistiques à régler ». Mais lorsque Demeter repense aux projets déjà réalisés, elle n’hésite pas à affirmer : « Mon retour en Hongrie, c’était une vocation. »

NL Bouwen aan Boedapest

Het culturele, politieke en economische potentieel van de Hongaarse hoofdstad krijgt steeds meer erkenning. Scott Berman ontmoet de architecten die de gebouwen ontwerpen die de stad verdient

Gebouwen van de hand van Zoboki-Demeter & Associates Architects (ZDA, zda.hu) bepalen het evoluerende landschap in Boedapest. Hoofdarchitecten Nóra Demeter en Gábor Zoboki staan aan het hoofd van dit bureau van 25 werknemers met vorig jaar een omzet van nagenoeg €500.000. Hoewel Zoboki toegeeft dat computerontwerptechnologie “nieuwe deuren heeft geopend”, wijst hij erop dat “men nooit zal kunnen afzien van het traditionele potlood en kladpapier”. Demeter werd geboren en groeide op in San Francisco nadat haar ouders tijdens de revolutie in 1956 wegvluchtten uit Hongarije. In 1993, na haar studies aan Yale, keerde ze echter terug naar Boedapest.

Zoboki en Demeter werden zakenpartners in 1997 en sindsdien bouwden ze een belangrijk architectenbureau uit. De visie van het bureau blijkt in het Paleis voor Kunsten dat in 2005 de deuren opende. András Csonka, de assistent- directeur van het Paleis, vertelt dat ZDA een 21ste eeuws hoogkwalitatief, modern en functioneel gebouw heeft afgeleverd dat is uitgegroeid tot een van de bruisende culturele plekken van Boedapest.”

De potentiële klanten van het bureau nemen voortdurend toe op basis van wat Demeter beschrijft als een groeiende erkenning van het “nog te ontdekken potentieel” in Boedapest. Zoboki legt uit: “hoewel de stad al enorm is veranderd, blijven talrijke stedelijke problemen onopgelost.” Maar als Demeter nadenkt over haar verwezenlijkingen tot nog toe zegt ze: “Ik geloof dat mijn terugkeer naar Hongarije een echte roeping was”.

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