BBU Library And Student Center / Gereben Marián Architects

Architects: Gereben Marián Architects
Area: 3,200 m² (34,445 ft²)
Year: 2023
Photography: Balázs Danyi
Lead Architects: Péter Gereben, Balázs Marián
Structural Engineering: Gábor Romits
MEP Engineering: Olivér Mészáros
Landscape Designer: Sándor Mohácsi, Dóra Polareczki
Interior Design: András Göde, Katalin Horváthné Maróti, Edina Király, Béla Hegyi
Constructor: Laterex Ltd.
Team Architects: Gergely Gergő Bódi, Miklós Dormán, Ödön Hajnal, Júlia Ivicsics, Júlia Kovács, Gábor Percz, Sára Tábi, András Ábrahám-Fúrús
Program / Use / Building Function: University Library and Student Center
City: Budapest
Country: Hungary

BBU Library and Student Center, designed by Gereben Marián Architects, is located in a residential and educational area of Budapest. Completed in 2023, the 3,200 m² (34,445 ft²) complex integrates new and existing buildings on the Budapest Business University campus. The project reorganizes the chaotic interior circulation system and adds a multifunctional library and student center, creating open and inclusive spaces. The redesign boosts community building and defines the campus’s identity, connecting it organically with its surroundings.

Bbu library and student center / gereben marián architects

The Budapest Business University campus is in a residential and educational area of Budapest, characterized by post-war housing blocks and a suburban layout. These buildings are set within an intensive green space, creating an urban park-like atmosphere.

Starting in the early 1970s, the campus was built in phases with late modernist characteristics. A dormitory and new educational wings were added in the 1980s. In 2018, the university initiated a design competition to reorganize the campus’s interior circulation and create a new library and student center.

The reorganization resulted in an open, inclusive complex, organically connected to the campus. The expanded building enhances community building with its interior spaces and external spatial connections. It highlights local values and shapes the university’s identity.

New community areas, sports and recreational spaces, the library, and study zones meet 21st-century requirements. The new annex serves as a meeting point for various activities, creating multifunctional spaces for students and lecturers.

The remodeled dormitory wing facing the campus garden enhances the circulation system, creating a more direct connection between the educational wing, dormitory, and new wing. This strengthens interconnectedness within the university. The interior courtyards, now liberated from additions that disrupted their proportions, form a revitalized green space, enhancing the newly defined campus garden off Bagolyvár utca.

The redesigned ground floor spaces offer direct access to the existing building, featuring a new main entrance, reception area, and seating booths. These spaces also provide entry points to the gymnasium and dormitory areas. The new wing includes a cafeteria, lecture hall, and upper levels of the library.

The new wing’s internal organization features an internal restroom block surrounded by multifunctional stairs, which connect the library’s reading areas and create alternative learning and community spaces with seating surfaces and periodical shelving units.

Spaces within the new wing are divided by bookshelves perpendicular to the façades, with reading desks positioned between them, separating in-depth work areas from circulation and community spaces.

The campus garden is a key element of the reorganization plan. Removing the street-facing fence and eliminating car traffic has transformed it into an open public space, serving as the institution’s urban foyer. The existing and new building wings open towards this green space, complemented by a single-story “porch,” a covered yet open area. The red brick cladding of the new wing matches the existing structures, while fine concrete is used for the porch, columns, and library cornices. The hidden textile shading, matching the concrete surfaces, provides solar protection to the library’s glazed exterior. When lowered, the shading system gives the new wing a uniform, relief-like appearance, diversified by the rhythm of the pillars.

Neutral tones and natural materials inside the building counterpoint the vibrant array of books and furnishings, accommodating diverse user activities.