AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1961-1962. Budapest (1963)

I. A könyvtár életéből - Farkas László-Havassy Pál-Tombor Tibor: A nemzeti könyvtár új épülete a Budavári Palotában - New accomodation for the National Library in Budavár Palace

New Accommodation for the National Library in Budavár Palace L. FARKAS, P. HAVASSY, T. TOMBOK. It was decided in 1959 by the Hungarian Government to restore the former royal palace and its surroundings as acultural centre and to accommodate within this framework the National Library of the Hungarian Peoples Republic, the National Széchényi Library, in the western wing of Budavár Palace looking on Krisztinaváros. The National Széchényi Library, which was founded in 1802, is presently accommodated in the same building as the National Museum, with which it shared until recently a common management. The lack of space which grew gradually during the last decades, became serious after the second World War, owing to the tremendous increase in the library stock. As a consequence of the cultural revolution the National Library was charged with new responsibilities of great significance and its organization was correspondingly widened. The provision of new accommodations became an imperative problem which tolerated no delay any more. The wing of Budavár Palace elected for adaptation to the needs of the National Library was built on the western slope of Castle Hill with a length of approximately 110 m at a width of round 45 m. The building features an immense central hall and staircase and two large internal courts. The internal corridors encircling the two internal courts and communicating through the central hall provide access to the external tracts of rooms opening in part on the Palace Garden and in part on the internal palace court. The main entrance to this wing is from the Lions Court of the Castle. Three floors, two of which are covering the full plan and one only a part of it are above ground-floor level, i.e., the level of the present main entrance, while there are two basement floors adequately illuminated from all directions and two cellar floors, so that there are eight floors altogether. On the side facing Krisztinaváros even the cellar floors are at considerable height above the foot of the hill, and the main entrance from Lions Court is at the fifth floor related to this side. After the announcement of the governmental decision concerning the new arrangements the preparations for planning the necessary modifications were immediately started by the Library, and a building program report was prepared as early as 1959. In this report various functions of the Library have been outlined, the space requirement of the Library has been specified according to both funetional room categories and organizational units, and finally the basic principles and considerations governing the design have been established. This was the fundamental document on the basis of which planning work could be started. In the subsequent stages of planning work closest cooperations could be established between librarians and architects, the library and technical experts. The first large stage of planning was concluded in August 1961, when the "General plan and planning program for the new accommodation of the National Library" in brief the General Plan" was completed as a result of the mutual efforts of the Planning Office for Municipal Buildings within the Ministery for Construction and the Working Group on Library Building formed especially for this purpose within the National Széchényi Library. The General Plan, which, together with the appurtenant drawings comprised three considerable volumes, was approved by government authorities in February, 1962. On the strength of this approval not only the preparation of detailed construction drawings, but also actual construction work was started in March, 1962. A governing, and in certain respects restricting fundamental feature of planning was that the problem consisted not so much of the creation of a new building, but rather of remodeling for the purposes of the national library an existing palace built originally for representative purposes, unalterable in its basic structural layout, arrangement, as well as exterior, and for which the character of a national monument had to be retained. A problem of considerable magnitude facing the planners in this respect, was the solution of the access from the western ground level, the lower entrance to the building. The present entrance of the building which is built on the western slope of Castle Hill, is on the eastern side from the Castle Court. On the Krisztinaváros side this corresponds to the fifth floor level. Two additional entrances open on the southern and northern fronts of the building, on the third floor level above the Krisztinaváros datum, from open terraces formed on the slopes of Castle Hill. For the present the building is inaccessible from the western side, from the Buda main traffic artery formed by the Krisztina Circuit (Dózsa György Place). Yet it was considered imperative that the National Library should be amenable to 104