Sou Fujimoto Visits House of Music Hungary
Three years after it opened to the public, Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto finally visits the House of Music Hungary he designed for Budapests's City Park, as documented in a video just released by Liget Budapest.
The House of Music Hungary opened its doors in early 2022 as one of the main components in Light Budapest Project, a cultural development in the city's largest and most iconic public park. The building with undulating, golden-colored roof pierced by light wells and even trees garnered a lot of attention at the time, but the building's architect, Sou Fujimoto, was unable to see it in person due to the pandemic. That changed recently, as documented by a 21-minute interview with Fujimoto made by Liget Budapest, in which he speaks about his initial impressions, what's special about the building, and working with Hungarian builders, among other things. To see photos of the House of Music, see our Found feature from the building's opening in January 2022 and a sneak preview of the building from late 2021.
While the interview is in English with Hungarian subtitles, the questions are written on the screen in Hungarian; translations of those questions are below.
- 0m15s: What is your first impression, now that you've been to the House of Music in person for the first time?
- 2m50s: Having only seen photos of the building during the last three years, is this how you imagined it?
- 3m30s: If you can show a friend only three parts of the building, what would they be?
- 5m10s: From the outset, you stressed that the light channels are very important elements of the building, that they bring feeling. Are they how you envisioned them?
- 6m20s: This spring the building was awarded the Special Jury Prize at MIPIM, and you know the House of Hungarian Music was named a building of the year [by Architecture Masterprize]. How do you experience this?
- 8m30: You have designed a lot of buildings all over the world. Where in the universe of your work is the House of Music?
- 12m35s: How satisfied are you with the quality of the workmanship, mainly the construction done by Hungarian companies and Hungarian contractors?
- 15m40s: Throughout the project every single builder was very proud to work on its construction. What do you think is the secret of the building?
- 16m30s: Is there any point or part of the building that you would like to highlight, that you are most proud of?
- 19m10s: Alongside the House of Music and the Museum of Ethnography we are planning a building by another Japanese architect, Kazuyo Sejima and SANAA. Have you heard about the project, and what do you think of this new Japanese-Hungarian cooperation?