The Budapest M3 metro line is Hungary's busiest railway, and its stations are the most visited public spaces in the capital. Since the original design was an icon of the 1970’s and 1980’s, the line has become a key landmark of urban life. Its overall reconstruction was one of the most important urban renewal projects in Budapest in the last decade.

Inclusive design and sustainability were central considerations in the whole project: the main aim was to bring an existing urban infrastructure up to modern standards in a cost-effective way, with the least possible urban disruption and the most focused technical interventions.

Deák Ferenc tér station is a distinguished hub of the Budapest metro network: three metro lines (M1, M2, M3) intersect here. To facilitate orientation, the new architectural concept makes the space understandable as a graph of nodes and connecting linear spaces. Static spaces (entrance halls, distribution and waiting areas) are characterised by neutral shapes and richly detailed textures, while dynamic spaces (pedestrian routes and escalator shafts) are characterised by dynamic shapes and brightly coloured cladding. The renewed image with its transparency, bright and cheerful colours and attractive surfaces reinterprets the original retro architecture and also promotes public transport for all.

At the -2 level of the underground complex a vestibule represents the entrance of the station. The free-floating individual luminaires create an imaginative plane under the false ceiling made of gleaming expanded aluminium sheets. At the platform Portuguese artist João Rodrigues Vieira's 1996 letter tiles were carefully restored, the artwork stands out in its moderate setting. The section of the interlinking corridors was reshaped: the cladding unites the two tunnels into one, this new abstract form evokes the space-age of the construction. With additional mining a new elevator was constructed that serves as an accessible and secondary entrance.

Client:
BKV Zrt. Metro Reconstruction Project Directorate

Contractor:
Swietelsky Építő Kft.

Engineer, Technical Inspector:
Budapest Közút Zrt.

General planning, engineering services:
FŐMTERV Zrt.

Design:
PARAGRAM Stúdió Kft.
Csapó Balázs, Germán Tibor, Gurdon Balázs, Hargitai Bence

Benches:
VPI Kft.

Fixtures:
A Plusz Stúdió Kft.

Original design:
UVATERV Zrt.