Racz Hotel & Thermal Bath

The 450yearold Rácz Fürdo thermal baths are located on the banks of the River Danube in Budapest, Hungary, within a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Rácz Fürdo project uses contemporary architecture as a framework to bring together historic buildings into a coherent bathing complex with an awareness of longterm sustainability. Today the area surrounding the baths is a popular park known as Tabán, although this used to be one of the most densely builtin areas of Budapest. In the 1930's the historical area was almost completely demolished. Only public buildings survived, including the Rácz thermal baths. Two world wars and the Communist era left the buildings in a very poor state and the current project presented the first opportunity for comprehensive excavation, reconstruction and extension of the site in 450 years. During the renovation, the majority of work was & where possible & carried out using the original building techniques of the relevant era. For example, there are no electric lights or mechanical ventilating systems in the Turkish baths area, while in the 19thcentury Ybl wings the water is set to the original pressure. Original Turkish rendering was recreated and Ottomanera gargoyles were reinstalled. The original paving slabs of the Turkish Bath were discovered 60cm underground and brought back into use, while the cupolas were relined with lead and exposed for the first time in 200 years. Glass and lead pieces found by archaeologists were used as a guide to recreate the windows. The muchneeded renovation uncovered additional gothic and renaissance carvings. We also managed to rebuild Ybl's Shower Hall (1865, 1970), which had been fully demolished. However, rather than creating a 'fake' history, we decided instead to construct a perfectly functioning 1:1 model of Ybl's building. The original onemetre wide walls were built out of a 15centimetre reinforced concrete structure following the interior shape. In so doing, the very rich and perfectly reconstructed interior space creates a frivolous modern exterior. We created a 60degreeangled frame of reference to encompass all of the original buildings. In the raster points of this frame we inserted either reinforced concrete columns or samediameter floor breakthrough covered with walkable glass. Through these ceiling holes both exterior and interior light can reach the lower floors. The top floor now functions as a roof terrace. The new building surfaces are made out of glass or glassmosaic tiles that follow the colour scheme of the plasterwork on the reconstructed surfaces. With this project the overall area of the baths has quadrupled to 8,000m2. Connected to the baths complex, a 67room boutique hotel was also built, with suites overlooking the Tabánpark and the Buda castle. Designing for longterm sustainability was one of the main aims of this project. We installed ecoaware mechanical engineering throughout the baths:for example, the used natural thermal water from the hot water pools is used to operate heat pumps. Most of the nonwalkable roof is covered with passive greenroof. After a long period of preparation, construction works started in 2006 and finished in 2010.