Armuth Miklós - Lőrinczi Zsuzsa (szerk.): A Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem Történeti Campusa (Budapest, 2023)

A Geodéziai obszervatórium - The Geodesic Observatory Gy. Balogh Ágnes

THE GEODESIC OBSERVATORY

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The Geodesic Oservatory was built after designs by Alajos Hauszmann as a complementary institution to the Department of Geodesics within the garden of the university on a site with undisturbed views wedged between the Library and the Engineering Laboratory. This tiny observatory is the only one of the original buildings of the Campus of the Technical University that does not exist any more. It was not included in the former plans made by Czigler or the first concept of development by Hauszmann, although the building of the university on Múzeum Boulevard had already housed a geodesic observatory in the attic. The coloured site drawing which Hauszmann made as part of the construction permit drawings of 1906 still featured a greenhouse in this part of the garden, but later on it was crossed out with a large red X. However, in the end the building of the observatory was included in the programme. Along with other concepts, a plan (floor-plan and sections with a scale of 1:50) signed by Alajos Hauszmann Alajos and approved on October 20th, 1909 have come down to us. Contemporary photographs prove that the Observatory Building was built accordingly.

The structure was placed on a north-south axis, and as such, did not align to that of

any other buildings in the Campus. This L-shaped single-storey building contained a warming room and two "observation rooms” covered with a sliding steel-framed roof and the two corridors connecting them. Both entrances opened from a small terrace accessible from the direction of the Central Building via a staircase diagonal to the two wings. The floor-level of the two lateral corner pavilions was built four steps (60 cm) higher than that of the corridors. As the instruments were stored in the cornerpavilions, the side walls of these rooms were equipped with openable wooden shutters instead of windows. The simple, almost unadorned building had a balanced facade defined by dry-pressed brick and plastered surfaces. Brick pilaster strips framed the plastered wallsections and apertures between the brick plinth and the cornice. As photographs show, only the cornice had a design slightly richer in details. As in the case of all the other buildings of the university, it was Li pót Havel who was commissioned to construct the works. According to the budget dated May 5th, 1909 the foundations were made of concrete.

AZ OBSZERVATÓRIUM, HÁTTÉRBEN AZ MT ES MM-MG ÉPÜLETEKKEL,1920 KÖRÜL

THE OBSERVATORY, WITH MT AND MM-MG BUILDINGS IN THE BACKGROUND, CCA.1920