Armuth Miklós - Lőrinczi Zsuzsa (szerk.): A Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem Történeti Campusa (Budapest, 2023)
A Központi épület - The Central Building Zsembery Ákos
1 0 0 Of the six internal courtyards only one was roofed in with glass on its inauguration: the present-day Aula (Hauszmann's "Grand Courtyard") referred to as the present-day Assembly Hall of the Campus (the Aula for Hauszmann) was housed on the first storey. The building contains two grand staircases, three main and two service staircase. An elevator was built next to the northern grand staircases near the Rector's room. The building was equipped with the most modern utilities of its time, lecture rooms and halls were heated by hot air assisted with thermostats and ventilation. Artificial lighting here used AC and DC current, the circulation rooms, depots, laboratories and external areas were lit with gas. As of today, two gaslights still operating are found outside the main entrance of the building. Hauszmann used timber only for the roofs, elsewhere all the floor slabs are either brick vaults or segmental brick arches supported by steel beams. The cover panel is an R-C shell slab between steel trusses. Besides this, Hauszmann used reinforced concrete for the slab above the foyer, the definition of the line of sight in the large lecture halls, the vault above the Assembly Hall and the roofing of the large lecture halls on the second storey and the drawing-room in the attic. He avoided wooden products when choosing the floor coverings, only the flooring of the staff-rooms and the assembly halls were made of oak. The bottom level of the originally six-storey main building is the present-daytunnel, which is shown in the original plans as "foundations and cellar". Before World War II it was converted into an air-raid shelter. The tunnel beneath the building is connected with each building of the university by a passable utilities tunnel. Originally no cellar was designed between the Grand Courtyard and huge 7,5 m deep ground wall of the central projection, but plans were modified during construction. Beneath the Grand Courtyard cross-vaulted depots, beneath the central projection a barrel-vaulted storeroom was built. The latter soon after was converted into a shooting range and used up until the tragic fire of 2006. The Museum of Plasterwork and the Engines Museum occupied the wings of the "lower ground floor" (today: ground floor] flanked by courtyards. Other rooms on the same level were used as stores and laboratories. The corner projection contained a two-level warden's and staff quarters. The southern corner rooms of the wing towards the library were now used as the Canteen, Reading Room, Architectural Museum and Zoological Collection on the levels above each other. Their ceilings were additionally propped by k-k steel pillars placed in the centres of the rooms.
