BADACSONYTOMAJ, VILLA GINA SZEGEDY RECONSTRUCTION AND EXPANSION 2009
The villa stands on one of the most beautiful spots of Badacsonytomaj, on the side of the mountain, on the territory of the Balaton-felvidéki (Balaton Uplands) National Park. The characteristic shape of the so called “witness mountains” of Badacsony surmount the landscape with volcanic basalt pillars and organs.
Georgina Szegedy – eponym of the villa - and her husband, doctor Ernő Pető, were well-known personalities in social life of the region around Lake Balaton in the 1920s, when they bought the estate and restored the cellar/press-house/cottage complex built at the beginning of the century. Following World War II, the villa used to accommodate a state-owned winery for decades, then a privately owned restaurant-hostel since the nineties.
Our architectural concept has three main components: the restitution of the original state by pulling down the auxiliary buildings neighboring the villa; the reconstruction of the villa according to modern needs and standards, while preserving its architectural values; and the construction of a new, modern building, with a layout and spatial structure that is identical to the original villa.
The long bulk of the building - 3-story at its highest - extends across the hillside; with a spacious, columned, covered terrace at the lake-end. After the reconstruction, the building will accommodate specific functions of the quality, manufactural wine making plant established on the estate. The boiler room will be placed in the basement; the cellar floor above that (in good condition) will be occupied by the maturation room and the traditional wine making processes. The upper level – the ground level of the building – will contain offices, a wine tasting and reception area, and a janitor apartment. All the existing levels of the building need to undergo renovation and minor reconstructions to satisfy modern needs.
In the new building, a traditional cellar system (foreground, preparation and maturation) will be created at the basement level; the ground floor will be occupied by guest rooms and a tasting room on the terrace overlooking the panorama of the lake.
Péter Kis, Zoltán Berzsák
Visualization by: Péter Romvári
