It is quite rare that an engineer receives an order to design the building of a museum. We do get orders for renewal, remodelling every once in a while, but we can rarely enjoy an order for the design of a new memorial place that does not exist yet. It was one of the reasons why Artrea Consulting Kft. treated the building complex of the House of Fates as an interesting challenge. Its special scenery-like appearance, the characteristics of the building and the multitude of memorabilia and historical materials made the lives of the specialized designers more difficult, including those of the electricity designers.
Owing to the characteristics of the building, energy supply had to be kept outside, thus both the transformer and the main distribution unit were placed outdoors. Each of the three buildings operates on its own, with its own power network. The only connection among the buildings is the main distributor mentioned above and the “nervous system” of our time, the computer network.
A new technology had to be invented for the architectural layout involving a concrete slab without a suspended ceiling or any other type of coverage, at the same time, the location of the connections only became known in the last stage of the construction of the building. We managed to resolve this seemingly impossible situation by designing a pipe network based on a certain logic, which the construction contractor installed prior to concrete casting, enabling us, with a small exaggeration in retrospect, to install public utility infrastructure connections on practically any point of the building.
As in every museum, here, too, lighting is a very important part of the exhibition. For a large part we used LED sources of lighting and intelligent control, explored special luminaires and solutions. The end result is a really spectacular, impressive interior.
Modern museums are no longer (simple) collections, places where objects are stored. Often they retain memories, use the tools of virtual reality to place the visitor in the age depicted by the exhibition. This happens in the building of the House of Fates as well — the computing and audiovisual technological systems of the House also had to be designed. The end result of all modern knowledge and opportunities is cabling and cabling, and even more cabling. It has been said by many that the building is held together by our cables — and since we incorporated “several tens of kilometres” in the building, this could actually be true…
The electricity-related issue of the building that was discussed the most was the seemingly simple affair of lightning protection. The mesh welded from reinforcement steel and installed between the façades and roofs of the two extreme buildings (we just called it the cage…) served as both a collection and touch-off device, but since it can be touched, professional debates developed around it. By the end of the project we had eight specialized engineers dealing with this issue — finally returning to the solution that had been the starting point. Nevertheless, everyone learned a lot from what happened.
In retrospect, we have completed a memorable design order. We were part of a creative team and erected a building that will continue to remind the generations of the future for a long time to come of the Holocaust, one of the low points of humankind and
Zoltán Üveges
Facts and numbers
- Our client: FBIS architects
- Architecture: Attila F. Kovács , FBIS architects
- Area: 12000 m2
- Year of design: 2013