+ SANDOR-HEGY, BOGRE-HEGY, DEVELOPMENT AREA, BALATONKENESE

SÁNDOR HILL, BÖGRE HILL DEVELOPMENT AREA, BALATONKENESE

Location Sándor hill, Bögre hill, Balatonkenese
Client Knésa Golf Ltd.
Floor area 55 937 m2
General designer MCXVI Architects
Leading architect designer László Herczeg, Katalin Csaba
Architect designers Gergely Galántai, Gábor Hajdu, Zsófia Paál, Bálint Sárközi
Status Urban Design Concept
Project year 2020-2021

The development area is located between Balatonkenese and Balatonfűzfő. It belongs to Balatonkenese. The area is partly forest, and arable land. Arable surfaces are patchy surrounded by forests and shrubs. This fragmentation is not conducive to agricultural cultivation, and the current regulation also defines it as a development site, with leisure, sports, recreation and health functions.

An important concept in design is the ecological implantation of new constructions. Reserving construction and balancing nature is a primary goal for such a large-scale, greenfield investment. The used construction sites have already been concentrated -by the regulatory plan- on the current arable lands whose agricultural utilization cannot be optimally maintained. The regulation however wanted to preserve the forest surfaces in unity.

The main aspect of the utilization of the area is that the local values are preserved and functionally expanded. Surveying the intensive and self-sustaining utilization possibilities of the recreation area played an important role in defining the planning program. In the plans, we have identified three main lines that will ensure the holidaymakers have a useful time. The recreation area, as separate from the shore of Lake Balaton as the city of Kenese, must stand an individual area on its own and the development can also provide additional possibilities for the local community.

Along with the three main utilization proposals, three regional centers have been identified.

The first such main function is the hotel complex, with a wellness and conference department and a restaurant, which solves the separation of the area from Lake Balaton and provides wellness experiences. When designing the hotel, the logistic services of the area must also be taken into account, and additional service functions must be created. In the structure of the new settlement, there is an emphasis on the use of intensively usable public space functions (playground, restaurant terrace with a panorama), which is also the primary arrival point of the area.

The forest area will be preserved as the second main element, it will receive active functional utilization as a recreational park forest open to everyone. This area is connected to service functions (sports equipment and bicycle rental, catering, toilets) and public areas.

The third element of our functional proposal is the creation of an active organic farm with animal husbandry, kitchen garden, and herb production. Using the meadow and pasture in the area. Animal husbandry provides an opportunity to directly present the regional identity. The products produced here can serve as a raw material for local hospitality. This function can be organically linked to the presentation of local values. The features located here also serve the park forest, changing rooms, and stables. This area is the center of the third settlement and its public space.

In the exploration of recreation sites, the primary consideration was to determine the proportion of necessary and sufficient transport routes. The recreation areas hang like bunches of grapes at the entrance point of the area, the main exploration route was defined at a width of 6 m, reducing and eliminating its full passage through the area, while the width of roads leading to the holiday villas was minimized at 4 m, ensuring two-way with gravel surfaces. Despite the regulatory plan, we want to distribute the parking lots required in the area in several smaller groups, while the case of social resorts, we take advantage of the terrain in the basement of the buildings. The car access of the units is ensured in all cases, we want to promote the use of the designated parking areas by installing an electric car charging and camera surveillance system. We recommend providing electric cars in the area.

When developing the wooded valley area between Sándor and Bögre hills, we recommend the creation of a bicycle-pedestrian path guiding to the Lake handed over to public traffic, which would create a connection between the recreational functions in the forest and the shores of Lake Balaton. It would provide an opportunity to explore the area for tourism and the connection to a tourist route. The land-use plan of the shore of Lake Balaton proposes the construction of a promenade from the railway station to the shores. A promenade is also planned towards the city. The implementation of these development opportunities can make the connection of the settlement more organic, it would solve the plateau-like separation of the area from the shore of Lake Balaton.