Budapest is to get a new city centre designed by Zaha Hadid Architects

ZAHA HADID Architects (ZHA) has designed a new mixed-use neighbourhood for northwest Budapest.

The seven hectare site will house a medical clinic and town hall, 35,000 square metres of communal green space, a park, pedestrian zones and bike paths.

Zugló City Centre will also feature insulating green roofs and be built to reduce energy consumption and emissions.

The design will allow for the collection, storage and reuse of more than 90,000 square metres of rainwater annually.

Above: The development is designed to connect and expand upon the district's existing parks and gardens. Image courtesy of ZHA.

The development is intended to connect with the surrounding district’s squares and gardens, breathing new life into these public spaces and creating an additional network of gardens and plazas with their own restaurants and cafes, shops, apartments and offices.

​​“It is a great honour for us to have won the architectural design tender for the development of Zugló City Centre,” said ZHA director Gianluca Racana in a press release.

“The project will create one of the greenest and most sustainable neighbourhoods on the Pest side of the capital.

“The new city centre, organically linked to the surrounding area and Rákos Creek, will equally offer residential, office, commercial and leisure services which will form a harmonious whole with the large green areas and community spaces that will be created.

“The complex development will also pay tribute to the architecture, culture and history of the beautiful capital, Budapest, while paving the way for the future with state-of-the-art solutions.”

Above: New plazas will house restaurants and cafes. Images courtesy of ZHA.

“The project looks at the surrounding ecosystems, integrating the future developments of the Zugló district and Budapest city to develop a strong bond with the re-naturalisation of Rákos Creek,” added Land Italia, the project’s landscape designers.

“The new district envisions a ‘green spine’ as the natural backbone of the development.”

The project is being developed by Bayer Construct Group with work set to begin in 2022, completing by 2029.

ZHA has completed a number of high profile projects recently, including an infinity-shaped medical research centre in China which opened earlier this month.