Locality: 9500 Celldömölk, Hungary
Client: Municipality of Celldömölk
Area: 900 m²
Year: 2012
General design: Földes Architects
The place immediately captivates the visitor, full of surprises and specialities. Near Celldömölk we are on the Ság hill. It is the little brother of the Somló, a mountain that stands out symbolically from the surrounding flat landscape. The mountain is a 5 million year old volcano and a reminder of 20th century basalt mining. For nearly 50 years, basalt was mined here, significantly altering the shape of the mountain, but also revealing the secrets of the volcanic crater.
The building is a search for “volcanism”: the result of the powerful forces at work in the bowels of the earth, the mystical processes. We focused on the effects of unknown natural and conscious human activity. Our aim was to give the visitor a sense of the history and world of the volcano by wandering in and around the interior space system. At the same time, we also wanted to commemorate the industrial activity that took place here.
By organizing the exhibition in closed boxes, the rational and the abstract coexist. On the one hand there is the scientific exact world of the exhibition in the white and black exhibition spaces, on the other hand there is the ambiguity, confusion, complexity and rawness of the space in between, which makes you think and makes associations after each thematic room.
We have consciously tried to let the visitor discover the layers of the house and interpret them according to his or her own logic, because this discovery is another layer of the experience. The understanding of the inner workings of volcanoes, and of the earth in general, is made possible by the efforts of very brave people and by amazing technical achievements. The concepts of discovery and expedition were very important in the search for ‘volcanism’.
(In the words of Peter Zumthor: Good architecture should lift man up, let him experience and inhabit it, not talk a hole in his belly.)
| architecture: | László Földes | Földes Architects |
| Csaba Balogh | Konkrét Stúdió | |
| Orsolya Tatár-Gönczi | |
| associate architects: | Ágnes Deigner, Levente Sirokai, Péter Sónicz | Konkrét Stúdió |
| structural engineering: | Zoltán V.Nagy | Lapidárium Mérnöki Kft. |
| mechanical engineering: | György Léderer | Flottbau Bt. |
| electrical engineering: | Judit Balázs | Artvill Mérnökiroda Kft. |
| landscape design: | Katalin Lukács |
| installations: | Narmer Építészeti Stúdió |
| road planner: | Katalin Karácsonyné Nedeczky | Karácsony és Társa Mérnökiroda Kft. |
| curator: | Gábor Sz. Szilágyi |
| professional curation: | Dávid Karátson |
| photography: | Tamás Bujnovszky, Levente Sirokai |
| publikációk: | 2013 | epiteszforum.hu – Andor Wesselényi-Garay: Experience deficit. About the new building of Kemenes Vulcanopark |
| 2013 | epiteszforum.hu – Kemenes Vulkánpark Visitor Center | |
| 2013 | dezeen.com – Kemenes Volcanopark Visitor Centre by Foldes Architects | |
| 2014 | archiweb.cz |