Armuth Miklós - Lőrinczi Zsuzsa (szerk.): A Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem Történeti Campusa (Budapest, 2023)
A Kazánház és a kémény - The Boiler-House and the chimney Gy. Balogh Ágnes
THE BOILER-HOUSE AND THE CHIMNEY The Boiler-House (originally: Kh, later on: Hő Building) is another spectacular building designed by Samu Pecz. Built between 1907and 1909,it generated thermal energy to supply the centra l heating of all the buildings and engines ope rated all over the Campus. Before the Boiler-House was placed in service in 1909, it was only the Ch Building which had a heating system of its own. Plans made in December, 1905 were approved by the municipal council in June, 1906. Revisions affecting the details of the would-be building by Pecz later on are marked in red in the ground-plan: the main hall of the building on the southern side of the "boiler-hall" was originally designed with buttresses, whilst the northern wing was meant to be a wider two-flank single-storey one. The three entrances to the building would have been opened on three sides in the central axes, and the hall was to contain a perimeter trackway. Working drawings by Pecz Samu were made in 1907-1908. The foundation of the building was designed by dr. Pál Lipták, those of the boiler-rooms by Károly Knuth, whilst the steam turbine by the Láng L. Engine Works. Károly Knuth also made the working drawings of the cinders lift, and later on the installation of the boiler-rooms in December. Pecz regarded the design work of the 39,5 m masonry chimney-stack beside the Boiler- House as a separate task. Its very first architectural plans bear no date and still show the surface above the ledge of the plinth as unadorned and simple masonry. In drawings made in November 1907 the contours of the reservoir realised later are included, but the top part of the chimney was still designed as unrelieved, featureless and unadorned. Plans dated from January and February, 1908 document that Pecz intended to use a spectacular reticulated masonry design beneath the chimney-top rounded off by a cornice. These plans also feature "a reservoir for 50 m3 water" wedged between two stone cornice shoulders. Construction went according to these plans, and the chimney was built by Szilveszter Eggenberger. Photographs made by Rudolf Balogh in 1909 outline the designed patterns of the chimney-top. However, it also proves that the 50 m3 reservoir had not been completed by the time the chimney was placed in service, only some time later. Exhaust fumes were conveyed to the freestanding chimney on the southern side of the Boiler-House via underground flues. As it has always been and still is an important part of the overall appearance of the university, it is not by ARCHÍV KÉP | ARCHIVE PHOTOGRAPH, 1909
