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

A Központi épület - The Central Building Zsembery Ákos

At the same time the roof of the Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory was reconstructed. Simultaneously with these works, the conversion of the tunnel into air-raid shelter was started. Up until World War II the extension of the building to some extent was finished. Thus all the courtyards were roofed in, and with the exception of the Danube wings, the third storey was also completely built in.

The building was seriously damaged during World War II. The first attack hit the Central Building considerably earlier than the siege of Budapest. Air raids on September 4th, 1942 a bomb exploded above the south-western corner of the wing towards the Library, which is today's K255 lecture hall seriously damaging the roof structure, ripping the cover panel constructed when adding another storey and the third-storey part of the facade wall collapsed.

During the siege of Budapest in 1944-1945, the site had been the front line owing to its location. As it was used as military and ordnance store, and the Central Building even housed an automatic gun and machinegun nest, it was continuously exposed to artillery fire and air attacks. The main entrance and the Grand Courtyard were damaged by numerous bulletscars. Rector Farkas Heller in his speech opening the academic year of 1945-1946 mentioned that the southern part the ceiling had in one place fallen in to the ground floor and that the eastern side of the ground floor was completely useless and unserviceable. Only every other student could get enrolled for the new academic year. The vaulting of the Assembly Hall collapsed. The surgeries contained here since 1926 and the canteen catering for students could not be used any more. The ceiling of several lecture halls (e.g. K275 and K234) collapsed. The four sculptures outside the main entrance were demolished or damaged beyond recognition - their remains were removed from here. Many of the original sculptural ornaments of the main facade were lost - such as the reliefs above the female figures and the wall decors above the main entrance projection. During the comprehensive reconstruction of the main entrance in 2007 replicas of the statues were made after archive photographs with the support of the Pro Progressio Foundation.

Not only the buildings, but also the technical equipment of the university were substantially damaged. A detailed survey of damages was started in February, 1947, managed by Alfréd Bardon, architecture professor. In the same year the Curatorium of the University of Technology edited a lesser publication documenting conditions before and after the siege with the aim to find sponsors for reconstruction works. During the post-war reconstruction restoring the original condition was a priority. The documentary plans titled "The Reconstruction of the Palatine Joseph University of Technology" date from June, 1948. Drawings made for the reconstruction document that the first and second storeys by and large had retained their original floor-plans till then. Dividing the second-storey lecture rooms into study groups rooms started in 1949 and continued up until the last decade. Making use of the large interior height, the floor size of the rooms was extended by building in galleries in many cases. The Kf38 lecture hall was built in 1950 as a whole and received a new roof too.

The reconstruction of the foyer and the Aula started in 1950 after designs by Károly Weich inger and Gyula Rimanóczy. On June 19th a fire broke out among the furniture piled up in the foyer, which had not been opened yet, and spread over to the Aula, causing serious damage there too. The reconstruction of the Aula took another two years. A complete remodelling of the Assembly Hall also took place after war damages. The plans dividing the hall into two parts at the gallery level by a monolithic reinforced concrete (Bohnsystem ceramic block slab) were ready by 1951. Construction was finished in 1953. The designs of the dividing slab and another concrete shell vault above the original reinforced concrete barrel vault were made by Professor József Pelikán. According to plans, five lecture-rooms were to be housed on the second storey, originally the air space of the Assembly Hall. By 1955 this conversion was ready, and,inthe same year, the reconstruction of the facades was also started.

Ergonomic considerations came more and more into focus in the 1950s and 60s. Thus in the lecture halls where windows let in light from the direction of students' right hands, boards were hung on the opposite wall, whilst desks were turned in the opposite direction. As now the board was on the facade wall, in front of the windows, the windows were converted into blank windows (e.g. in halls K155 and K255). Here glass panes of the windows are replaced by light grey wooden planks today to upkeep the integrity of the facade design.