Robert Gutowski Architects

  • Practice
  • Projects
    • Saint John Paul II Church, Páty
    • Shenzhen Opera House
    • Concert Hall, Pannonhalma
    • Chapel of Our Heart, Budapest
    • SZEM Museum Collection Storage
    • Media and Infocommunications Authority
    • Museo del Novecento, Milan
    • Sports hall, Pannonhalma
    • National Museum, Helsinki
    • Our Lady of Fátima Shrine
    • Stadttheater, Landshut
    • Philharmonic Hall, Yekaterinburg
    • Forest School, Táp
    • Budapest Student City
    • Look-out tower, Budapest
    • Institute of Advanced Studies
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Look-out tower

Lake Naplás is Budapest’s largest standing water. Its forested surroundings are a nature reserve, and the hill overlooking the lake is crowned by the Lookout tower. It is an architectural sign, which emphasizes the excursion place on the capitol’s map.

An interesting feature of the tower is its mass: a 'column' built on an equilateral triangular plan, which is both unusual and regular. The 27-metre-high top is a triangle corresponding to the ground plan of the lower level but rotated by 60 degrees. The two horizontal planes are connected by triangular front walls sloping gently inwards and outwards. The edges are formed by wooden beams coming from the summits.

The ground plan and spatial design of the tower is symbolic and playful, departing from the usual rectangular plan. The crystalline structure of the tower, which varies from all angles, is made up of resting levels at a height of 6 m. The hexagon, the result of the rotation of the triangles, refers to the symbolic link between architecture and mathematics.

The timber-framed tower, designed on a reinforced concrete base, is a modern building structure, a sign visible from afar, but also a spiritual link between earth and sky, connecting man with nature, offering contemplation and tranquillity.

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