In mid-October 2021, the Budapest Development Agency launched an international architectural design contest for the renewal of the Budapest Nyugati Railway Station and its surroundings. TSPC supported Sweco Architects + Gateways in the competition with its collaboration on the conceptual plan.
The design contest description defined the following goals for the participants:
The beautiful heritage hall of the station will preserve its values. The ground-floor spaces will be renewed, the hall’s extended tracks will be placed underground and the surface platforms will receive a common roof structure. The upgrade of the railway line leading up to the new station will increase the frequency of trains, and the quality of services and transfers in the station will make rail transport more competitive. In the future, the underground tracks will also be able to receive trains coming from Buda in the planned railway tunnel. All the public spaces around the railway station will be upgraded, and a linear public park will be created on the site of Nyugati tér and the rust belt along the railway, connecting the Nagykörút with the Városliget and later the Rákosrendező area. The most valuable, now dead or decaying areas of Budapest will be given a new lease of life with sustainable transport, lots of greenery, and the healing of the wounds and gaps that are an eyesore in the middle of the city.
According to the plan prepared for the competition, the renovation of Nyugati Grand Central and its surroundings will create a new transport hub with lots of green surfaces. The concept presents the operation of the current and future transport network within the boundaries of the planning area, as well as its connections with the network of the surrounding areas. Particular attention is paid to sustainable mobility, the human-scale use of the urban environment, and public spaces, which meets both the needs of the present and the challenges of the future.
An important element of the planning concept is the linear park, which creates a green corridor from the Városliget to the Nagykörút above the underground rails. According to the plan, the transport links were organized in such a way as to strengthen the connection to the VI. district.
The design programme of the design contest will include the following items:
New underground station and above-ground covered platform hall
Heritage hall with new functions and underground platforms
Renewable underpass spaces, handicapped-accessible integration into the urban fabric
Nyugati square transformed into a modern, 21st-century public space, without an overpass
Green public spaces for ecological and recreational purposes in the vacated railway areas, a contiguous green park from the Nagykörút to Dózsa György Road
New road, pedestrian, and cycling links between districts XIII and VI and along the railway
Participants of the competition project design:
Sweco Architects AB
Gateways B.V.
TSPC Technical Supervision and Planning Consulting Hungary Kft.
Lépték-Terv Tájépítész Iroda Kft.
Bollinger + Grohmann Engineers Kft.
Systematica S.r.l.
Bartenbach GmbH
Biopolus
Mannvit
Tomlin Ltd
Brick Visual Solutions Zrt