Liget Center Auditorium

In 1998, we were part of a team of architects who worked on the renovation of one of the most famous and acclaimed modern monuments in the country. The office wing of former MÉMOSZ headquarters - today Liget Center - on Dózsa György street was renewed then. After more than two decades, we are delighted that with the revitalization of the Auditorium the full renovation of the building complex will be completed, and even a modest new wing will be added to the complex.

In 1947, Alvar Aalto, a Finnish architect, published an article in the Italian architectural magazine Domus. In this article, he presents the process of architectural creation as a tortuous, intuitive process, where many conflicting requirements, endowments, and aspects need to be coordinated and taken into account by the designer. These are social, human, economic, and technical needs that appear simultaneously and together in design. „Architecture and its details are connected in a way with biology. They are, perhaps, like large salmon or trout. They are not born mature, they are not even born in the sea or a body of water where they will normally live. They are born many hundreds of miles from their proper living environment. Where rivers are but streams, small shining bodies of water between the mountains, under the glaciers’ first melting water drops, there they are born.” 

The design competition of the MÉMOSZ headquarters was announced in 1947. At that time, five architects were commissioned to design the house: Imre Perényi, Gábor Preisich, Lajos Gádoros, Károly Perczel and György Szrogh. It is quite unique that the five Hungarian architects used and reinterpreted some of the architectural elements of Aalto's first truly famous work, the Viipuri Library, built-in (at that time) Finnland (1927-1935 - now Vijborg, Russia) in the headquarters building.

We want to present and continue this game that spans time and space, during the renovation of the house, respecting the building’s core values and monumental protection.