URSA quality in the building of the prestigious new museum

Among the developments of the Liget Budapest Project is the realisation of many iconic buildings. The special collection of the Museum of Ethnography was first presented to the public in 1896, at the Millennium Exhibition in Városliget – and now, after many decades of wandering, it has returned to the park, now its permanent home to Ötvenhatosok tere.

Hungarian architect Marcel Ferencz (NAPUR Architect Építésziroda) won the right to design the new building of the Ethnography Museum with his sophisticatedly minimal, yet surprisingly energetic idea, which, with its concave curved shape evoking two intertwined hillsides, also fulfils the role of an exciting gate in creating the possibility of passage between the district and the park. The fact that 60 percent of it was built below ground level also contributes greatly to the building's uniqueness, so that real green space covers the roof and can thus function as a surface community space.

The modernity and compliance with professional requirements of the building of 34,000 square meter are beyond dispute, as is the fact that it is perfectly adapted to the needs of visitors. The construction of the new building of the now 150-year-old ethnographic institution began at the end of 2017 and was handed over in June 2022 next to the practical 800-space Museum Underground Garage created in Dózsa György út.

The public park, which offers a beautiful panorama at the highest point of the Ethnography Museum's 7,000 square meter characteristically shaped roof garden, is a breathtaking composition of green roofs and simple step-proof/walkable roof solutions. The walkable museum roof garden was created with precise technical planning and high-quality materials, on which more than 3,000 m³ of fertile soil enriched with special nutrients has been spread, blends delicately with the greenery of the Városliget, as the "hillsides" of the museum building are decorated with picturesquely arranged flowering and leafy plants on thousands of square meters of park space.

From a technical point of view, the structure, which is considered a flat roof with reverse layering, has almost 4,000 m³ layers built with URSA XPS N-III-L extruded polystyrene insulation ensures its thermal insulation and reception of walkable pavement/green vegetation. The closed-cell hard foam was installed in different thicknesses as required: In thicknesses 50mm, 80mm, 140mm, 160mm, and in the form of boards with a thickness of about 3,000 cubic meters 200mm, which is the really substantial part. The URSA XPS N-III-L insulation can be well loaded with pressure: With a maximum load of 30 t/m² at 10% compression, 13 t/m² at 2% compression. It is an easy-to-cut, simple-to-install board product with a low water absorption capacity, characterized by a smooth surface and staggered wind formation and its heat conduction factor, which can be taken into account as a long-term planning value, is optimally λ_d=0.032-0.036 W/mK.

According to modern museological recommendations, it was important to ensure protection from natural light, which is why around 60 percent of the building was located below ground level. The primary task was to ensure ideal room acoustic indicators in the interior of the museum; for which nearly 8,500 m² of acoustic insulation were installed in the broken line design above the so called "suspended false ceilings", on the lower plane of the slab.

Acoustic designers, striving to be able to optimally adjust the reverberation time of the space - avoiding reverberation - voted for an insulating material that approximates this ratio as closely as possible to 1, i.e. it classifies the material in the category of excellent sound absorption. URSA TERRA BiOnic 62Ph/Vr heat and sound insulation covered with a black glass veil with "overhanging lugs" was chosen for the ceiling. with its very high ratio of 0.95. mineral wool 60mm thick, in large-panel 126x126mm packaging. Since the URSA mineral wool belonging to fire protection class A1* is non-flammable and non-combustible (*mounting material: A2 – s1, d0) and its thermal conductivity is also excellent, so it perfectly meets the set requirements. It is a special advantage that the easy-to-cut and simple-to-install URSA TERRA fibrous insulation material dampens the effect of sounds vibrating in the space, so that nothing disturbs the visitors in fully enjoying the museum experience.

In order to be able to build a structure of excellent quality in every detail, both in terms of heat and sound insulation, in addition to the excellent internal slab insulation, URSA mineral wool was added to many of the installed plasterboard partitions: AFri ≥5 kPa s/m2 flow resistance, A1, i.e., non-flammable and bare coil URSA BiOnic TWF1 mineral wool belonging to the non-combustible fire protection class can perform this important function.

Visitor-friendly creations and versatility characterize the building, which spectacularly presents Hungarian and international material and intellectual heritage. The museum has about 4,500m² of permanent and 2,500 m² of temporary exhibition space, including the Liget Budapest Visitor Centre, where guests can view an interactive exhibition for free, and a library, archive and conference room can also be found in the building. The new building of the Ethnographic Museum can now boast not only its outstanding ethnographic collection, but also the fact that it won the ”World's Best Public Institution” award at one of the most prestigious competitions in the international real estate industry, the 2018 International Property Award in London – based already of the plans – and was also awarded the "World’s Best Public Architecture" main prize.

We are proud to say that the URSA company also contributed with its sustainable insulation materials to the energy efficiency of a modern art building constructed as part of the Liget Budapest Project - Europe's largest urban development project with cultural content, recognized with prestigious international awards.