Fresh plans - Pázmány Campus will be greener and 30 percent cheaper

The plans for the new campus of Pázmány Péter Catholic University's new campus plan has been modified to a 30 per cent cheaper project costing 137 billion forints, while the original plan of just 7 per cent green space has been increased to more than 20 per cent.

– announced Regő Lánszki, State Secretary for Architecture and Chief Architect of Hungary at a press conference held on Wednesday morning in the famous Marble Hall of Hungarian Radio, in the Esterházy Palace on Pollack Mihály Square, which was reported on by vg.hu.

As we previously reported and has now been reiterated, the demolition of the radio buildings will be completed by summer, the state is offering to purchase nearby apartments, and the buildings surrounding the future campus will receive new thermal insulation.

According to the Ministry of Construction and Transport, which is overseeing the investment, the completion of the new university campus, the area surrounding the neighbouring National Museum will become one of the most beautiful parts of the capital.

We have gone to the wall," said the national architect, presenting the revised plans, which have been drawn up in response to requests from local residents and the municipality.

The final plan was modified as follows

•     A 5 per cent block reduction will be achieved,
•     make the plot more open, which
•     will fit in better with neighbouring areas than before,
•     the library, sports and cultural functions will be open to the outside world,
•     and the previously planned 6.7 percent green area will be increased to more than 20 percent.

They are already looking for a contractor

The demolition of the former Hungarian Radio buildings will be completed by the summer, and the state will soon offer to buy the flats from the owners of the surrounding properties, the report adds.

The Pázmány Campus will be completed in 900 days from the signing of the construction plans, and the call for tenders for the construction was published on 17 April.

The most costly elements have been removed from the many, but now final, plans on which the application for a building permit is based, reducing the expected cost of the project by 30 percent to HUF 137 billion

- said Zoltán Nyul, Deputy State Secretary for Building Construction ÉKM, in response to a question from vg.hu.

New features will be located above street level

As it turned out, the new plans would, among other things, not require the 30-metre gap walling phase that was in the previous documentation, which would have taken up a lot of resources, as the building below street level would have been completely reduced. This would have been the biggest environmental burden, the article reveals:

The previously planned sports function has been removed from the basement level and relocated to Puskin Street, and the underground car parks will not be built on the same site, but in the existing facility on Mihály Pollack Square, with the lower level of the underground car park connected to the university. This will also mean that the planned exit to Szentkirályi Street and Bródy Sándor Street will be removed from the project plan.

The next step in this major project will be the selection of the contractor. The design, combined with the new technical content for the tendering and building permits, has been completed and the demolition process will be finished by mid-summer, Világgazdaság reports.