Jókai Villa wins one of South-East Europe’s most prestigious architecture awards

The DVM-designed Jókai Villa has received international recognition. The Bauhaus-style heritage building, repurposed as a children’s psychology clinic, was named winner of the Residential Renovation category at the BigSEE Architecture Awards. Throughout the project, respectfully preserving the values of this building with its unique history went hand in hand with a deliberate contemporary reinterpretation.

The BigSEE award was founded by the Ljubljana-based Zavod Big foundation. As one of South-East Europe’s most influential international design and architecture platforms, it celebrates projects that respond to contemporary challenges with high-calibre design thinking, innovative solutions and social sensitivity. Alongside aesthetic quality, the jury also weighs functional clarity, sustainability and a project’s relationship with cultural values. Out of an international field, the Jókai Villa — renovated by the DVM team under lead architect Dániel Berecz and project lead architect Huba Ferenczi — took first place in its category.

Built in the 1930s on the initiative of the Új Idők literary magazine, the villa today houses a children’s psychology centre and the editorial offices of Mindennapi Pszichológia magazine. Over the decades preceding the renovation, the building went through several expansions and conversions reflecting the changing needs of its residents. The design concept was rooted in respect for the existing architectural values. The villa underwent substantial structural and mechanical modernisation with an environmentally conscious approach wherever feasible. The facade proportions, detailing and spatial structure were preserved, while the interiors were transformed into a contemporary, human-centred environment — ensuring that the villa’s cultural and architectural significance lives on into the next century.

More information: bigsee.eu/jokai-villa-by-dvm-group