Dorottya street 8 – 137 room three star hotel

The site of Dorottya street 8 is located a few steps from the Danube bank, in the heart of the city. From the North-West side the site is adjacent to SOFITEL (previously called Atrium Hyatt), from the Southeast side is the Dorottya Palace. On the opposite side of the road, is the building of the Ministry for National Economy. One of the most frequented pedestrian shopping street of the city starts just in front of the new hotel building, the shopping street that runs in to Vörösmarty square within a 100 meters, and then continues as Váci street, the main shopping street of Budapest. The surrounding area is built-in as inner city blocks, with average height buildings. Out of these blocks stands out the building of Hotel Intercontinental, which stands between the Danube and the buildings dating from the turn of the century. In the close area of the site, the majority of the buildings are either residential, office or hotel buildings, in the wider area it stands out that the majority of the hotels have four and five stars.

The client, in regards to the site, building regulations and the central location, decided to build a compact, design oriented, three star hotel with 137 rooms. According to the client’s plans, the hotel will focus on young visitors that are more interested in the cultural life and heritage of Budapest, rather than the night life. The services of the hotel are designed for the low and mid budget travelers arriving by low cost airlines, who spend their time discovering the city, usually only using the hotel as their night time accommodation. The client is also expecting the travelers arriving for 1-2 day conferences, who also spend most of their time outside their hotels.

We have designed an L-shaped building to the site that consists of a basement + ground floor + mezzanine floor + 8 floors, and has a closed faced line toward the street. The façade consists of two structural tracts on the façade, which is supplemented with an internal wing on the north side towards SOFITEL. The shape of the building is determined by its function and by the site being surrounded by firewalls. The simple shape of the building is complemented with divisions that help the functionality of the buildings. The street façade is adjusting to its historizing surroundings with its horizontal divisions, similar to the behavior of its surrounding. The building is recalling the plasticity of the façades of the old inner city with a contemporary twist by the backward-forward movements of the windows on the façade.

The spacious, high ceilinged lobby also provides a designated space for breakfast. The inner courtyard was designed to be a fresh, youthful space, with the design standards of the hotel chain in mind.