winding timber lookout tower rises above budapest's nature reserve

lookout tower: a winding landmark at Naplás Lake

Robert Gutowski Architects plants the winding Lookout Tower to mark the nature reserve of Budapest and the Naplás Lake and stand as a sculptural beacon for hikers. With a unique geometry, the timber structure is simple yet playfully sophisticated, presenting an open-worked sculptural mass that emerges from the natural environment and gently twists up towards the sky. Visitors are invited to explore its intricate wooden form, climbing up the tower to enjoy 360 degree vistas of the engulfing landscape through the slats and the culminating panorama deck at the peak.

Lookout Tower at Naplás Lake | image by Bálint Jaksa

a contemplative viewpoint

Symbolically, Budapest-based studio Robert Gutowski Architects has conceived the lookout tower as a port of connection — between man and nature, and earth and sky — and a space for contemplation and relaxation. As visitors approach the structure and ascend, they embark on a spiritual journey that allows them to connect with the surrounding natural environment as they soak up views of the nature reserves, the floodplain of the Szilas stream, and the Cinkota Park Forest. ‘As we rise from the ground, we get a better view of the outside world, but also of the inside,’ notes Robert Gutowski.

Simple, yet intricate in form, the spruce timber structure has been built on an equilateral triangular plan fixing its column-like mass to a concrete base in an unusual yet regular configuration. The 27-meter-high top is a triangle that corresponds to the ground plan of the lower level but rotated by 60 degrees. The two horizontal planes are connected by triangular front walls sloping gently inwards and outwards, while the wooden beams at the edges start and end at the apexes of the horizontal triangles. The hexagon, which is the result of the rotation of the triangles, refers to a symbolic link between architecture and mathematics.

column-like mass twists and sits atop a concrete base | image by Tamás Bujnovszky

image by Tamás Bujnovszky

simple yet intricate in form | image by Bálint Jaksa

peaks of nature through the wooden slats | image by Tamás Bujnovszky

a panorama viewing deck crowns the structure | image by Bálint Jaksa

overlooking Budapest’s nature reserve | image by Bálint Jaksa

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image by Tamás Bujnovszky

project info:

name: Lookout Tower
architecture: Robert Gutowski Architects

location: Budapest, Hungary

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edited by: ravail khan | designboom