TOLCSVA, BARON WALDBOTT MANORIAL WINERY RECONSTRUCTION AND EXPANSION 2016
"A trace is a sign of proximity, however far away the one that left it behind is; an aura is a sign of remoteness, however close the source of it is. A trace provides us opportunity to capture something, while an aura can overwhelm us." Ákos Moravánszky: Műemlék és emlékmű/Listed buildings and monuments, Az építészet időbelisége/Time in architecture, ARC'5
The building, located on the estate of Grand Tokaj Zrt., used to be the main building of the historic Baron Waldbott manorial cellar. The client decided the development of the estate, the renovation, extension and reutilization of the main building. Its historic past, architectural value, and disposition – the road leading to Tolcsva points directly at the main façade – indicated our proposal to reconstruct it as the new main representative and office building of Grand Tokaj Zrt. This idea, approved by the client, determined the architectural concept essentially.
The Waldbott House, cleared from the extensions attached to its side over time, has air and space around it again. The simple, gable-roofed bulk sits at the bottom of a sloping hillside. The two-story main façade with a tympanum in the axis looks to the east; the single-story western façade looking at the mountainside represents a different scale and character. In order to preserve the old building as an individual entity, we planned an L-shaped expansion; with the shorter leg adjoining the northern gable wall of the Waldbott House. The U-shaped layout of the ensemble defines a courtyard and a longitudinal axis; providing a new, shared accent for both the extension and the existing building. This way, the old and new lengthwise façades looking at the courtyard become equal: the emphasis shifts to the office building entrance, which is located in the focal point of the courtyard, sitting in a shaded, deep recess on the sunshiny façade. The new and the old building can be interpreted separately, with their own identity, but they are fundamentally related. This relationship – with regard to the significant age difference - is definitely built on the aura of the Waldbott House.
Péter Kis, Ákos Dobrányi, Júlia Losonczi, Tamás Bene
Visualization by: Donát Rohonczi
