Armuth Miklós - Lőrinczi Zsuzsa (szerk.): A Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem Történeti Campusa (Budapest, 2023)
A Kémiai épület - The Chemistry Building Kalmár Miklós
are also expressions of the professional pride of a skilled architect. Expertise of forms, materials and technologies applied are all conceived in the spirit of contemporariness. The structural system of the planned substructures was a subject of debates. One of the issues to face was the changing underground water level owing to the proximity of the River Danube, an other the too large and changign distance between the level of the load-bearing soil and the surface. As the U metre thick concrete sheet foundations of the Parliament building were completed just then, amongst similar challenging conditions, representatives of the ministry were in favour of the method used in the Par- liament project relying upon a watertight concrete plating as block insulation at 3,5 metres above the Danube level. However, Czigler was aware of the changing structure of the soil, and thus would have preferred to adjust the foundation level to follow the load-bearing soil. He suggested setting the foundation plane at a height of 5,5 metres above the Danube level and build a concrete linear base up to the masonry walls. In the end, Hauszmann had a final say in favour of the latter, although Pecz himself would have preferred concrete sheet. All in all, it was only beneath the deep cellarwhere they had an appr. 1,6 m thick concrete sheet foundation built without reinforcement. To receive the likely water-pressure, CO >DC CO 2 LU X o LU 30 cm thick concrete substructure was built beneath the floor covering of the basement. The truss of the glass roof to cover the large auditorium in the courtyard was another challenge: finally, they opted for an iron-frame one. Hauszmann largely contributed to the final designs of the structural details. Now and then there were decisions made when Czigler allowed no compromises: on such an occasion, he flatly rejected the proposal made for the widening of the corridors by 30 centimetres. All working processes were tendered, and they chose the applicants by judging their submitted bids and reliability. As Czigler was appointed "managing architect" of the
