Budapest South Gate

ZOA unveils Snøhetta’s masterplan for a new waterfront district in Budapest

Beyond thrilled and honored

Even despite our personal attachment to the city—since we are a local studio—we can declare that Budapest is one of the world’s most astonishing and beautiful places.

For this reason, when we made an offer for creating visualizations for the project—virtual high-five to our friends at Sporaarchitects for introducing us to Snøhetta’s Innsbruck Office and for being the Hungarian partner of them—back in 2019, we were super excited. From the very first moment, we knew that something extraordinary was about to happen.

It is no exaggeration to say that our whole office was beyond thrilled and honored when we partnered up with Snøhetta. Regarding the working hours, this has been our biggest project so far, with appr. 20 images and a 2 minute-long animation in Hungarian and English, created between March and July, 2020.

This creative package—our largest to date—included more than 20 high-resolution renders and a 2‑minute bilingual animation, produced from March–July 2020. It was one of our most popular projects in early 2023.

Two cities in one

Someone living outside the city might not be aware of the fact that the two sides of Budapest often can be considered as two different quarters. From the beginning of time, the argument about which part is worthier living at has been a banter between ‘budai’ (traditionally the wealthier class) and ‘pesti’ (that is, where the magic happens) people, but one thing we share in common: we all know what it means and feels like to be ‘budapesti’ and we all want to be able to make the best out of our city.

Moreover, we all have a personal relationship with the Danube. In general, rivers have a symbolic meaning—they are the representation of constantly changing life, and to a further extent, along with bridges, they hold the power of dividing and connecting things at the same time.

To be honest, in the past few decades, Budapest has not completely used one of its biggest trumps — the river itself, especially not in the Southern area. Apart from some individually established urban hip spaces, this very part of the city has been unjustly neglected. And now, as we take a look at the South Gate plans, this is about to change, as Budapest’s new and exciting possible future is taking shape, with a lively waterfront for the capital.

Key elements of the masterplan

According to Patrick Lüth, Managing Director of Snøhetta’s Innsbruck Office, the winning element of their design was highlighting the former market hall by creating run-off channels that go beyond the building and by that, connect the spacious public plaza to the river.

It seems that the jury has seen much more potential in the plans, because as they stated ‘It boldly accepts the challenge of developing a new neighborhood in Budapest that does not yet exist. It captures the opportunities of the area—offered by water, green belts and the characteristics of an island’, and we couldn’t agree more.

Upon completion, the district is projected to house around 16,000 people—of which approximately 12,000 will be university students—and employ approximately 15,000 people, forming part of a €3.39 billion government-supported investment.

The project’s blue‑green infrastructure, including water‑purifying channels and rain gardens, not only reduces heat island effects and increases biodiversity, but also garnered industry recognition.

In 2021, the project received the LILA Honour Award from the Landscape Institute.

Pushing the limits

As mentioned, working on this project that is so close to our hearts with Snøhetta was truly a blast for our visualization company. Being personally involved as local citizens, the weight on our shoulders was even bigger than usual since we wanted to achieve 100%. In order to challenge ourselves even more, for the first time ever, we used RailClone for modeling over 100 buildings—a parametric modeling tool that generates building forms based on facade types and design regularities—even though in the future, separate tenders for each plot may emerge.

Budapest South Gate is part of the Budapest 2030 strategic vision, aiming to transform a largely underutilized 135-hectare brownfield site into a dynamic waterfront city quarter with university campus facilities for 12,000 students, educational, recreational, and sports infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, and internationally renowned event venues.

Its strategic location close to major transport infrastructure—including the nearby Ferenc Liszt International Airport 12 km away—positions the district as a vital urban gateway that breathes new life and functionality into the southern entrance of the capital.

We would like to congratulate Snøhetta and Sporaarchitects for this extraordinary plan and would like to thank them for the opportunity to help turn Budapest into the place we all would love to live in.