MOL Group, the leading oil and gas company in Central and Eastern Europe, operates in more than 40 countries and employs nearly 29,000 people worldwide. After three years of construction, the company consolidated its Budapest offices into a single campus building completed at the end of 2022.

Designed by Foster + Partners, the MOL Campus serves as MOL Group’s new headquarters—an expression of the workplace of the future with sustainability at its core. Located in southern Budapest, it is the city’s tallest building, uniting the company’s operations under one roof.

Nigel Dancey, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners, said: “This is a landmark project for several reasons, not only for MOL but also for Budapest. It presents a unique challenge – to ensure that the building meets the functional needs of the organisation, follows the highest standards of sustainability, and is respectful of its historic surroundings.”

As an evolution of the traditional tower-and-podium model, the building unites a 28-story tower and podium into one cohesive form. Its glazed façade rises in a smooth curve from entrance to crown, giving the structure a continuous, interconnected character.

Greenery follows this upward trajectory—rising from the central atrium through skygardens to a public garden at the tower’s summit. These planted spaces serve as social catalysts, encouraging collaboration, relaxation, and inspiration by bringing nature into the workplace.

Collaborative design and greenery integration

Greenery follows the same trajectory, travelling through the heart of the building, from the central atrium on the ground floor, linked with skygardens throughout the tower, and culminating in a public garden at the top of the building. These green spaces also act as a social catalyst throughout the building, encouraging collaboration, relaxation, and inspiration by bringing nature closer to the workplace.

Offset service cores create large, flexible areas that promote collaboration. Advanced systems control light, temperature, and views, finely tuning workspaces into bright, uplifting environments.

“As we see the nature of the workplace changing to a more collaborative vision, we have combined two buildings – a tower and a podium – into a singular form, bound by nature. As the tower and the podium start to become one element, there is a sense of connectivity throughout the office spaces, with garden spaces linking each of the floors together,” added Dancey.

The MOL Campus reinforces live-work balance within the urban fabric, enabling employees to walk or cycle to work. Every occupant has direct access to fresh air, daylight, and views. The building draws on low- and zero-carbon energy sources such as photovoltaics and incorporates rainwater harvesting and storage for resource efficiency.

Sustainability 
MOL Campus sets a new benchmark for sustainable design in Budapest and across Hungary, using its urban context to drive performance. It is the country’s first project to achieve both BREEAM Excellent and LEED Platinum certifications, owing to innovations such as a 900-square-meter solar array, geothermal heating and cooling, and graywater recycling.

Roof-mounted solar panels generate 5–6 percent of the building’s annual electricity needs, while the remainder comes from green energy sources. A ground-source heat pump system supplies roughly 40 percent of annual heating and cooling demand.

Rainwater collected in the basement is reused for irrigation and toilet flushing through a graywater network. During construction, 98 percent of waste was diverted from landfill and over 23 percent of installed materials contained recycled content.

Ecologically valuable green areas extend across the ground level and roof terraces, with vegetation flowing from the central atrium upward—bringing nature into the workplace.

Material innovations
All adhesives, sealants, paints, coatings, and flooring systems meet LEED low-emission standards. Most built-in products contain recycled materials and the majority of construction materials were sourced within 800 kilometers. All timber used is FSC-certified, ensuring responsible environmental, social, and economic management.

Adaptability and future use
The offset service cores and structural grid create large, flexible spaces that support collaboration. Modular floorplates and a façade grid allow for changing work practices and potential alternative uses. The cladding and external curtain walls are designed for easy replacement over the building’s lifespan.

These three terms can only be used to roughly describe the new headquarters of the MOL Group in Budapest, because they are still far from enough to understand the entire scope of the project. The 28-story building, planned by star architects Foster + Partners, is now the tallest building in Hungary. The aim of the project was to set new standards for sustainable construction in the middle of the vibrant metropolis of Budapest. With the long-term strategy “2030+”, the MOL Group has set itself the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The construction of the new headquarters is an essential building block on this path.

In terms of interior design, our partner Kinzo won an international competition in 2017 with its concept of promoting this cultural change in the company with an agile working world. This is how a future-oriented working environment was created on the MOL campus, which creates a particularly lively environment through lush greenery. Completely in line with the company’s sustainable strategy. A working world inspired by urban life, with places for community and exchange, but also with spaces for retreat and concentration, runs through all floors. As is the opulent planting, which creates veritable green spaces as a central design element.

Structuring & planting.
In order to structure the wide, open areas of the offices totaling 43,000 square meters, basic cap cabinets were used. As a design element, they form the necessary structure in the room between the workstations and at the same time offer storage space directly at the workstation behind the flush sliding doors. In coordination with the other interiors, the fronts veneered with real wood and the color accents used contribute to the high-quality ambience and create visual moments of identification. basic top attachments for greening the 3,600 workplaces complement the schematic planting concept.