A branch of the huge Transport Museum earmarked
for the former MÁV train repair workshops in Kőbánya, an exhibition centre is being built within the former main station of Kelenföld in south Buda. With 100 million forints of government money now set aside for the project, a comprehensive technical assessment of the building can be undertaken, and a blueprint drawn up for its reconstruction.
Építész Stúdió is being tasked with its redesign, on behalf of the Museum of Transport.
“Kelenföld station is a historical artefact in itself, but one that has lost its former purpose due to a changed system of transport. The mission of the Transport Museum is to save the building, which is one of the oldest railway monuments in Budapest. The new exhibition space and cultural centre in this 130-year-old building will also help us to be able to present smaller exhibitions in the future, until our new home in Kőbánya is completed,” says Transport Museum director Dávid Vitézy. “With this latest news of funding, we can work at full speed in tandem with the creation of the main Transport Museum.”
Last autumn, it was revealed that the Transport Museum had undertaken to save the old station building at Kelenföld, which Hungarian State Rail MÁV had previously closed. The building had lost its original functions. The museum’s plan is to breathe new life into the building, create a cultural and community space, and a railway-focused exhibition area with themed events and shows. Model railway layouts, especially popular with children and train enthusiasts, will give the old station building a suitable purpose again.
The condition of the building is extremely dilapidated, and after technical surveys, it will become clear how much of the ruined listed building can be saved – and when.
During the planning work, the museum's partner will be Építész Stúdió, which also successfully competed in international design tenders for the construction of the Helsinki National Museum and the current New Transport Museum in Kőbánya.
Their name is also associated with the reconstruction of Széll Kálmán tér and the design of the FMH Cultural House in Budapest, and the plans for the Mobile Interactive Exhibition Centre in Győr.
According to museum plans, some of its model-railway layouts will be bought across from the highly popular Miniversum miniature train attraction on Andrássy út, that closed down earlier this year. Scale models of Nyugati, Zugló and Győr stations should all feature, as well as others from the museum’s own collection, some of them unique, rare and created up to a century ago.
Plans also call for the Kelenföld site to stage smaller exhibitions while finishing touches are put to the main new museum building in Kőbánya.
