architect: Béla Tamás
architectural consultant: Péter Kovács DLA
The topic of my thesis – just like for others – caused a lot of confusion initially. There were ideas that seemed interesting, but the right choice went beyond them. I wanted to create something that solves a problem in the present, manages a great location, starts something, and last but not least, provides important and exciting work for me.
I found several unsolved issues in different locations, but only one of them was one that has been waiting to be taking care of since my childhood and perhaps the childhood of my ascendant family members. The chosen location is one of the easternmost regions of Hungary, Tiszabecs, a border village, my home village. The settlement is separated from Ukraine by the Tisza River, which also represents the natural border between the two countries. The construction area is located on the outskirts of Tiszabecs, northeast of the settlement, in the floodplain enclosed by flood protection embankments. It is a former free beach area. Today it is used as an unmarked beach by locals and visitors. Unspoiled natural area, yet something was needed to bring together the many great features. My chosen area, in addition to its importance due to the border and the beach experience, is the starting point of the International Tisza Tour that is the most popular sport of domestic and international tourists here.
I found the location. For a long time I had no idea what I was planning here. I wanted something that could be a worthy successor to the popular constructions on the banks of the Tisza. Here, I was not thinking about residential buildings, rather about objects built in the immediate vicinity of the river and related to the utilization of water. Furthermore, it should use space and water, leaving the closeness and untouched state of nature, while at the same time giving people a reference point that they can even name.
The people living here and on the other side of the border once belonged to the same country and have known each other ever since, why not strengthen this relationship!? Relationship, this thought started something in me, something that turned into a drawing. If fate has made it so that our country develops faster than the one on the other side of the water, why don’t we take the initiative? The main building leans over the Tisza just like when you meet an old friend again and extend your hand forward for that particular handshake. The beginning, the outstretched hand, was already there, it just had to be cast into a statue.