The continuously changing colours and lights of Lake Balaton nearly create an ethereal experience on the high coast of Balatonföldvár. The towering loess wall projects the force of the geological ages. A human feels tiny and momentary, yet there is something calming in dissolving in the timelessness of nature.
Nothing else could be the starting point of the concept of the hotel on such a site but the outstanding location. We tried to achieve the analogy of layering, ascent-descent, fracture and towering over with the tools of architecture while composing the volumes of the building.

Excerpt from Dr. Edit Babinszi: The memories of Lake Pannon on the shores of the Hungarian sea

“The shoreline walls, which are closely linked to the panorama of Lake Balaton, reaching heights of up to 80 metres in some parts, stretch from Tihany, then from Fűzfő through Kenese and Akarattya, with some breaks all the way to Fonyód. The steep, relatively stable walls were formed by the waves of Lake Balaton before the water level was regulated and the coastal defences were built. Contrary to popular belief, however, they are not made up of loess transported and deposited by the dry winds of the Ice Age, but of sediments deposited in the shallow, rippled waters of the Pannon Lake, the vast lake that once filled the Carpathian Basin, in its quiet bays, on the shores of the shore, which are dotted with pools and marshes.

The history of Lake Pannon began many millions of years ago: during the Oligocene (34-23 million years ago), the Paratethys Sea, which stretched from the present-day Rhône River valley to Lake Caspian, broke off from the Tethys Ocean between Eurasia and Africa as a result of the convergence of the continents and the associated mountain-building processes. In the late Miocene, around 11 million years ago, the further convergence of the continents led to the uplift of the Carpathian Mountains, which finally separated the Pannonian basin and the huge body of water trapped in it from the other basins of the Paratethys.”

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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