We have created a modern, efficient and elegant headquarters for the National Institute of Pharmacy and Food Health (OGYÉI) in Szabolcs Street, 13th district. The 15,000 square metre building complex, which has already been handed over, is one of the largest in-house designed and implemented projects of our office. Every aspect of the complex has been designed to meet the highest EU, professional and technological standards, while preserving the historical heritage of the institution.
The formerly two-site OGYÉI has consolidated its activities on one site, for which buildings 1, 4 and 4/a of the old Szabolcs Street Hospital have been designated. The task was to transform the building into a modern, safe and efficient laboratory and office environment that meets the latest EU standards. The project involved comparing the client’s requirements with the constraints of an existing building. The planned new offices and laboratories were located within the walls of a former hospital building, which was redesigned and extended with contemporary elements to meet the needs. In addition to the overall design process, we also provided sectional coordination and design supervision.
By proactively managing expectations, we have come up with a much more complex programme than initially envisaged, which has significantly increased the efficiency and quality of the whole development. As a result, we were able to renovate not just a headquarters but an entire site, thinking with the client. The concept reimagined by our team allowed the activities of the OGYÉI, including pharmaceutical and food safety inspections, to be carried out in one place in an integrated way, thus improving the efficiency of the Institute’s operations and the quality of its services.
The development was intended to create harmony in both form and function in a complex of buildings that spans the ages and is therefore fragmented. Buildings one and four were originally constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with a masonry structure and porous glass ceilings. Building 4/a, however, is a pillared building built in the early 1980s, which is distinctly different in its use of materials, structural system and massing from the turn-of-the-century hospital buildings. This contrasting fit has remained a guiding principle in the current renovation.
Building one on Dózsa György Road has been converted into offices, while the stretch between buildings one and four has been converted into community spaces. Building four has a mix of offices and laboratories, while property 4/a also houses testing laboratories. We wanted to restore the harmonious finish of the ensemble, so the curtain wall structure connecting the wings and the new steel-framed deck replacing the roof spaces will bring the buildings together. A characterful cornice structure provides a reassuring closure. The connection between buildings one and four is retained, but reimagined in a contemporary form, where airy, bright areas bounded by curtain walls are created as meeting places with large tea kitchens and rest areas on each level. The extension has been designed to keep the original brick façade as cool as possible. Accordingly, the decoration and colouring of the facades harmonise with the original, while adding modern elements.
The transport system had to be radically overhauled to make all areas wheelchair accessible. The area has 10 new parking spaces for cars, some of which are electric and accessible, and 46 spaces for bicycles. We created 13,000 m2 of green space around the facility to make the development even more attractive.
