Graphisoft Sparks High Tech on Danube

Graphisoft R&D Zrt. - Budapest, Hungary

"The entire company was caught up in the design process and ArchiCAD's visualization tools were invaluable to getting people involved."

Some companies might balk at the prospect of practicing what they preach, but when Graphisoft R&D had the opportunity to test its concepts of creating and managing the "virtual building" on its own new corporate headquarters, it jumped at the chance. "There was really no question about it," said Graphisoft COO Péter Hornung, who manages the entire project. "We were convinced that the effort to develop and maintain a 3D model of our buildings would offer immediate payback, and it has."

The company was rapidly outgrowing its facilities in Budapest and needed to find a long-term solution to house its R&D staff, and worldwide sales, marketing and administrative employees. Today, Graphisoft employs more than 140 people in Budapest spread out over five small buildings east of downtown. Rather than just find a larger building, the company decided to purchase a seven hectare (18 acre) tract of land along the Danube River just north of central Budapest and develop Graphisoft Park, Hungary's first high technology office park. "Some people call it the Danube Silicon Valley," said company founder Gábor Bojár. "Our concept behind Graphisoft Park is to nurture the region's software development business and help it become a real industry." Three of the 15 buildings are under construction now.

Graphisoft will occupy the largest building, at 3000 square meters (32,000 square feet). The other two buildings have already found software developer tenants including the Hungarian office of Microsoft. Formerly owned by the state’s gas utility, the site required some environmental cleanup. A decision was made to cover only 15 percent of the area with buildings. The result is a low-density campus with drives made of interlocking pavers, tree-lined footpaths along the Danube and large landscaped areas. "Graphisoft Park offers our close strategic partners and independent ArchiCAD-partner-product developers a relaxed working environment," Bojár explained. Six local architectural firms were invited to compete for the commission to design Graphisoft Park. Winning architects Ferenc Cságoly and Ferenc Keller from Építész Stúdió Kft (Architects Studio Ltd.), immediately put ArchiCAD to use creating a rich vocabulary of brick, glass and steel that recalls the site's industrial heritage of the last century, but is clearly looking forward to the next. Cságoly and Keller divided the Graphisoft building into two parts and kept them to only three stories to reduce the buildings mass and segregate R&D from other company functions.

Small floor plates ensure everyone is afforded views of the Danube or surrounding trees. "We insisted on developing and maintaining a complete 3D model from the very beginning," Hornung reported. "The entire company was caught up in the design process and ArchiCADs visualization tools were invaluable to getting people involved. We posted renderings and VRs to our company Intranet site so everyone could see their new space, and now we are posting the buildings under construction. From an operations point of view, I think this will have a huge benefit by making the transition from the old to the new space as smooth as possible. I also have to stress how important the 3D model was to quickly leasing all of the space." Since the architects "virtual building" contains almost all of the information used for construction, it will be maintained and updated later for continuing facilities management and leasing.

"We're looking forward to this next phase of using ArchiCAD. I think playing the role of client helps us to better understand and respond to our users," Hornung said. The Graphisoft building will be completed in June 1998, followed in the summer by two additional buildings.