Sunset Lake Lookout Tower

Robert Gutowski has designed a contemporary wooden lookout tower as a new landmark for a former industrial area.

A new wooden lookout tower has been built this year on the very eastern border of the city of Budapest. The 27-meter height wooden structure overlooks the small Naplás Lake (or Sunshine Lake, in English) in the 16^th district. From the top of the tower one has a beautiful view of the surroundings: looking to the east, one can distinguish the hills near the town of Gödöllő, famous for the summer residence of “Sisi”, the wife of the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.

The tower was implemented as one of the elements of the so-called Urban Forest Development Program of the Pilis Park Forestry Company (Pilisi Parkerdő Zrt). With such developments, the former rather industrial area has been spectacularly transformed into a popular leisure centre. The lake is the largest body of standing water in Budapest, which was created in 1978 by damming the Szilas stream to deal with the water fluctuations between different seasons.

The designer of the tower, Robert Gutowski, graduated from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and worked several years in the office of architect Dezső Ekler. Ekler designed, among others, a remarkable school building in Pécel, just a few kilometres meters away from the tower. In 2004, Gutowski created his own office, and designed several public and sacral buildings, often built in brick or wood, like a gymnasium (2014) and concert hall near the Archabbey of Pannonhalma.

The complete article is published in Winter 2021 issue of Piranesi No. 44-45/Vol. 29.