Dózsa Bercel

Architecture MA
supervisor
Csomay Zsófia
masterwork consultant
Vass-Eysen Áron
masterwork opponent
Börzsei Tamás
thesis consultant
Hartmann Gergely
thesis opponent
Kovács Dániel
masterwork

Pusztaszabolcs Beer Station

In my diploma project, I explored the water houses along the railways of Hungary, which were once used to fill steam engines. Currently there are nearly 100 abandoned water stations in the country. My aim with this project is to raise awareness of these valuable but neglected structures, and to present how they could be revived to suit the characteristics of the buildings and the needs of the local communities. In the plan I convert the water station in Pusztaszabolcs into a small brewery. The industrial building has several floors, so ingredients can be transported to the top, and from there gravitation can be used to move them to the lower levels, through the various stages of processing. This way each stage of the brewing process (boiling, fermenting, bottling, consumption) will be on a separate level. The tower functions as a machine, and there is a beer pavilion built using the existing steel water tanks. This approach provides a sustainable solution for repurposing railway water stations, and it also creates a new opportunity for local communities to boost the local economy and social life.
thesis

The next stop is a water station

The spatial structure of railway water stations Preparatory study for a future utilisation project

In my thesis I explore the history of water houses in Hungary and their potential utilisation today. I describe how water houses work, how they were used in the past and what specific features they have, and I present various existing examples for their repurposing. I explored the relevant literature, I researched archives, conducted interviews and visited sites to provide a status report on water houses. The number of such structures is declining, but the research has revealed that their condition and location make several water houses especially suitable for repurposing. However, the 93 water houses still standing in the country were built according to different architectural typologies, and they vary in condition and the value of their location, which means that they cannot all be given the same new function.