On the outside, Fővám tér Metro station in Budapest is surrounded by a glorious display of old and intricate Hungarian buildings. But once you begin to descend into the station, you feel like you’re entering into an entirely different planet.
Huge beams of concrete span from one wall to the other, interlocking together like a colossal pie crust. They rise over your head as you descend down hundreds of feet and, amazingly, find that your destination is filled with light.
The soaring structure around you is the work of SporaArchitects and has gained huge international acclaim. You don’t have to be an architecture nerd to see that you’ve entered into a fantastic structure. But how did world-class contemporary architecture end up here, below the ground? And how does it affect passenger experience on the Budapest Metro?
Between 2009 and 2016, there was a nine percent drop in car ownership, according this Hungarian study. Researchers suggest that this might be due to financial belt-tightening among Hungarians. And with only 44 percent of Hungarian families owning a car, Budapest needed to invest in their public transportation.
The city built a fourth Metro line, the M4. István Scheller, who was the lead government architect at the time, created an open-call style competition to design the stations themselves. Scheller wanted to create a “beacon of modernity and light.”
The modernist structures Scheller sought stands in contrast to the architecture Budapest is known for. Contemporary architects in the city often experience strict guidelines on what they can and cannot design, according to “cultural” standards set out by the country.
Yet Scheller’s gamble on contemporary architecture paid off. Soon after the opening of the stations, the design was ranked first in Community Architecture in ArchDaily’s Building of the Year, 2015. But it wasn’t just the architecture world that appreciated the stations: the stations were designed to make passenger experience better.
Kálvin Tér metro station in Budapest
One of the top priorities of the design was passenger flow. The stations had to create safe, clean, and comfortable environments for about 150,000 daily passengers – and now the number has risen, to over 420,000. This had to be accomplished all while working many stories underneath the ground, below the city’s layer of difficult sediment, and below the Danube River itself.
Recalling the city’s history as an innovator in subway transportation, the engineers used the “cut and cover” method to bring natural light into the deep underground stations. The station also includes comfortable as well as contemporary furniture, in addition to intricate and beautiful decorative details.
Fővám tér metro station in Budapest
“Using impressive spaces, we wanted to facilitate the attraction toward public transportation for all,” says Zoltán Erő, one of the main designers on the project.
The stations were also designed to be viewed while in motion. Going up and down one of the long escalators allows for a slow, dramatic reveal of the station design itself. “This is a dynamic space with a very dynamic arrangement,” says Balázs Csapó, the other head architect for the design. Designing the stations with one large space was critical for “facilitating travel with ease, organization, and easily recognizable exit.” In order to express their design, Spora and Palatium saw opportunity under the ground where there was little above it.
Designs like the M4 station aren’t praised just for their beautiful appearance. By using light, color, and space, they can help create happier passengers – and change the public perception of the Metro itself.
Photos by the author.