In its lifetime, Villa Cinquecento has been through the hands of three different owners and
went through many visions of transformation by various architects – a situation which is
difficult to handle on its own when tackling a new design challenge. Therefore, when
Napur Architects were tasked to redesign the multi-residential building, it was inevitable
throughout the whole process that the participating architects and the new customers
would need to collaborate through open, transparent communication to achieve a high-
quality result.
Reacting to the steeply wooded site of Buda, Villa Cinquecento is designed as a highly
responsive dwelling that embeds itself into the hillside. Anyone who has been in Buda
before, couldn’t argue with the statement that the most beautiful inner part of the district
falls into the area of ??the so-called Istenhegy, Svábhegy, and Kútvölgy. An incredibly
exciting valley, where the topology of the landscape is part of the design process of every
house. There are plenty of narrow streets, steep and dramatic slopes; plots where the
woody, steep bushy landscape is not only stretching extensively and infinitely from one
corner of the horizon to the other, but it almost feels like it’s at your fingertips. And still. The
typical city dweller is not very familiar with this spectacular sight. This beautiful cinematic
play of nature coming alive in front of our own eyes is a privilege for only a few in the
bustling city of Budapest.
Such a situation has proved to be an inspiration for this multi-residential generous
condominium. Its central character draws inspiration from the modernism of contemporary
villas. The house stands on one of the steep sides of the street, with an extremely wooded
hillside on the opposite side. Therefore the main orientation point for the architects during
the design process was this beautiful green square in front of the house. More precisely, in
terms of compositional principles, it was not the contour of the house or the boundary of
the plot which served as an orientational element, but building inward from the point of the
green hillside in a shell-like structure.
