Liget Budapest Project: Hungarian buildings among best in the world

The Museum of Ethnography and the House of Music Hungary, both part of the Liget Budapest Project, received highly prestigious awards at the FIABCI International Awards Ceremony. These two buildings in Budapest are now considered among the most outstanding in the world.

At the FIABCI World Prix d’Excellence (International Real Estate Development Excellence Awards) Gala on 30 May, the Museum of Ethnography was awarded a gold medal, with the House of Music Hungary also being honoured. This recent accolade firmly places the two buildings in the Liget Budapest Project among the world’s best, making them the most internationally awarded buildings in Hungary, Turizmus Online writes.

City Park buildings win the “Oscars of Architecture”

The International Real Estate Association (FIABCI), founded in 1951 and active in more than 60 countries, organises the World Prix d’Excellence awards ceremony to recognise the most successful property developments each year. It is considered the most prestigious real estate development competition in the world, as highlighted by Turizmus Online.

The jury of international experts evaluated sustainability, aesthetics, and visitor experience, finding both the Museum of Ethnography and the House of Music Hungary to be excellent on a global scale.

“It is a great honour that wherever in the world we present the Museum of Ethnography and the House of Music Hungary, their design is recognised.”

– said Benedek Gyorgyevics, CEO of Városliget Plc., the company responsible for the implementation of the Liget Budapest Project. He added that besides the prestigious awards, the number of visitors has also demonstrated the success of both projects. “All Hungarians can be proud of this.”

“All Hungarians can be proud of this.”

“In addition to the prestigious awards equivalent to the Oscars and Nobel Prizes in architecture, the fact that the Museum of Ethnography’s building represented Hungary in the Hungarian pavilion at one of the world’s most prestigious cultural events, the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, is also a testament to the quality of the Museum of Ethnography’s building.”

liget budapest project museum of ethnography

The Hungarian Museum of Ethnography.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Liget Budapest Project has given a new spark to Hungary’s cultural image

Gyorgyevics highlighted how, “In the first ten years of the Liget Budapest Project, our centuries-old cultural institutions have been renewed, and alongside them, some of the world’s most exciting contemporary buildings have been constructed. Thanks to these developments, Hungary’s tourist attractiveness has increased significantly, and the new contemporary Liget buildings have become internationally renowned landmarks.”

In 2016, an international call for tenders for the design of the Museum of Ethnography was issued, attracting submissions from several world-famous architects. The winning design was by Hungarian architect Marcel Ferencz.

The Museum of Ethnography.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

“The fact that a Hungarian design came out on top in an extremely strong, elite field of design firms from all over the world is one of the greatest, world-renowned successes of contemporary Hungarian architecture. […] The completion of the building is one of the most important achievements of multifaceted Hungarian innovation,”

– Gyorgyevics emphasised.

Numerous prestigious international awards

This is not the first time the Museum of Ethnography and the House of Music Hungary have received international recognition. In 2017, the Liget Budapest Project was named the Best Futura Mega Project in Europe at MIPIM, the world’s most important real estate event in Cannes.

The Museum of Ethnography was voted the world’s best public building based on its design at the 2018 International Property Awards in London and also received the Best Architecture prize. In 2022, it won the top prize in the cultural category of the prestigious Swiss Built Design Awards and first place in the cultural category of the Chinese Idea-Tops Awards, while the German Design Awards declared it “Excellent Architecture.”

Magyar Zene Háza House of Hungarian Music

House of Hungarian Music
Photo: facebook.com/magyarzenehaza/

The Hungarian House of Music, another iconic building of the Liget Budapest Project, won “Best International Public Building” at the International Property Awards (IPA) in 2019 and was voted the world’s best music-themed real estate development at the Music Cities Awards in 2021. It received Architecture MasterPrize’s Architectural Design of the Year, was included in Architectural Digest Magazine’s 2023 list of the most influential international attractions, and Time Magazine included it, along with the Ethnographic Museum, in its list of the World’s Greatest Places.

“This recognition by FIABCI confirms that Budapest’s premier family theme park, including the stunning House of Music Hungary and the Museum of Ethnography, has its place among the world’s top tourist destinations.” – said Gyorgyevics.