It’s all about mobility

10–15 years ago the topic of mobi­lity gained momentum in the contem­po­rary Hunga­rian archi­tec­ture. A major task of the next gene­ra­tion of archi­tects, engi­neers and urban desi­gnes will be the rede­fi­ni­tion and resha­ping of the exis­ting urban infra­struc­ture. Archi­tec­ture and mobi­lity will have impact not only to traffic systems but also on social spaces and public parks. An incre­asing percen­tage of archi­tects will be involved in forming and desig­ning new urban networks, in contrast to tradi­tional tasks like desig­ning commer­cial and public buil­dings or resi­den­tial proper­ties.

Although the town of Tisza­füred is consei­derd to be the capital of the Tisza-Lake Region, and also the center the North Alföld eco-touristic subre­gion, it has rela­tively few sights or buil­dings that are worth mentio­ning from a clearly archi­tec­tural perspec­tive. One of them nearby is the Hotel Tisza Balneum (Ferdi­nand Archi­tects, 2008).

Out of the blue

Perhaps that is why my first encounter with Tisza­füred Cycling Centre struck me as a suprise. We arrived on the main road from the direc­tion of Debrecen. For miles and miles there was nothing to see but the breath­ta­king planes of Horto­bágy. When we reached Tisza­füred and crossed the rail­road, we quite unex­pec­tedly caught the sight of a new buil­ding. The psycho­lo­gical effect is very diffe­rent from other and higher buil­dings — which the visi­tors can see from a far — here it comes totally out of the blue, after one or two bends from the town centre — you have a stand-alone snow white buil­ding in front of you —  with surpri­sing contoures.

Dutch connection

Tisza­füred Cycling Centre looks like being inspired by Dutch or Danish examples of urban bicycle faci­li­ties where the road becomes the buil­ding: it spirals upwards, slowly ascen­ding and finally connec­ting with the buil­ding at the top, where the entrance zone to the Pavi­lion are located.

The connec­tion between central corpus and spirals are loosened, less calcu­lated, less regular. The ramps that take the cyclers up are coverd with green roofs that at certain parts estab­lish the func­tional connec­tion between the diffe­rent levels. The three floors have three distinctly diffe­rent func­tions: The ground floor houses bicycle rentals and service func­tion, rest­rooms and showers are located on the seond floor while the top floor gives room to a coffe shop and an infor­ma­tion desk. From here you can enjoy the beau­tiful view to Lake Tisza. 

A day at Tiszafüred Cycling Centre

A regular one day cycling program at Tisza­füred Cycling Centre looks like this: fami­lies or tourist groups arrive by car or by bus, change to their own or rented bikes, may contact the infor­ma­tion desk and set out for the 50km bicycle road. When getting back at the end of the day, they may take a shower, change, have their vehicles repaired or main­tained, get some refresh­ments at the coffee shop, chill out and continue their tour.

The buil­ding may seem a little extro­verted since the style and the scale of the buil­ding may be considered more suitable for a more dense urban back­ground but Ferdi­nand and Ferdi­nand Archi­tects wanted to create a symbolic venue, easy to remember and clearly distin­gu­is­hing Tisza­füred from other tourist desti­na­tions.

Tisza­füred Cycling Centre does not only serve the pure func­tional needs of bikers, it also was desi­gned to become a symbol of touristic deve­lo­p­ment projects in the Tisza­füred region.