Nyugati station reconstruction

Attila Gulyás

M3 Nyugati station reconstruction

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LO - Interior Aluinvent

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M3 Nyugati station reconstruction

The interior design of Metro 3 was a design icon of the 1970s and 1980s, before the concept itself even existed. The modern, poppy, moody, futuristic solutions, colours, shapes, surfaces and furnishings of its time have since been swept away by the permanent retro wave. The technical iron discipline of wall-to-wall reconstruction condemns these details to total destruction. What can be done?

photo_credit Attila Gulyás — Attila Gulyás

Rebuilding is no longer an option, the technology and the will to do so no longer exist. The logic of the demolition process suggests another way. Removing the slatted ceilings and wall cladding reveals the true face of the metro, the real structures that until now have only been seen in tunnels and factory spaces: the tunnels, the steel tubing, the steel sheet insulation, the shotcrete, the slotted walls, the steel cross-pillars. What comes back, reinterprets, alludes, amplifies.

The Nyugati pályaudvar metro station is one of the busiest stations on the M3 line, with a daily traffic of approx. It has two escalators with exits to Nyugati tér and Westend-Máv railway station. The station is a classic 5-tube Budapest-type underground station with steel tubing and prefabricated cross-shaped columns with characteristic curved plates welded between the belts of the steel I-beam crosses. The architectural character of the station was mainly due to its strong use of colour (red, blue), the unique appearance of its columns and its distinctive red benches.

The reconstruction respects these elements, revealing and presenting the underlying structures, and reimagines the interior of the station. The original suspended ceiling's division was accentuated by the red luminaires distributed in a perpendicular pattern to the track; the proposed suspended ceiling recalls this division, but makes the surface transparent by the random, gaping placement of the lamellae. The distribution of the slats in the suspended ceiling is similar to that of the Corvin Square station, but here they are both set in the transverse grid of the station and in the colours (pastel red, light and darker grey) of the original row of lights. The red colour is thicker in the passenger concourse and thinner in the platform areas. The original red benches are replaced by pastel-coloured concrete benches, which are a transcription of the old benches in terms of shape and material. The (almost) Parisian blue, the trademark of the West, is returned to the walls as a metallic cladding with varying patterns. An inclined lift in the southern slope will ensure the station is barrier-free. Due to the space requirements of the elevator and the emphasis on the terraces, the slope will not be covered with the full surface, but will be presented in its "natural beauty", showing the difficult and complex construction technology of the station.