The thermal power plant of Inota was the largest industrial investment in Hungary in the 50s, and at its peak it could have supplied the whole of Budapest with electricity. Not only are its three huge, illustrious cooling towers familiar to anyone driving to Lake Balaton from the capital, but it is also worth knowing that their novel water-cooling technology was a revolutionary innovation at the time, winning engineers László Heller and László Forgó the Grand Prix at the 1958 Brussels World Exhibition. Thanks to Inota, these uniquely shaped cooling towers soon became widespread throughout the world.
The largest yard in the industrial area under the open sky without light pollution. At our INOTA Focus: RADIANCE event, you will be able to visit the whole site - including this, too.
The sixty-metre high cooling towers, which dominate the landscape, used air condensation to cool the water in a closed system during their active life, and recirculated the cooled liquid back into the system.
Fifty years ago this 6,000-square-metre hall was powered by huge turbines, for our end-of-summer event, itt will host installations and a huge light painting by the legendary 404.zero.
Winding pipes and stairs are assembled into a mutant industrial organism.
Our open-air chill out room and dance floor, where you are welcome to drop by from 4pm until 8am the next day at our INOTA Focus event.
The power plant included a housing estate - Inota even had its own postcode - and a beach and a community centre were also built for the families of the workers. In the foyer of the latter, 1950s mosaics by Gyula Hincz and Géza Fónyi welcome visitors to the theatre with its brutalist ceiling, said to have been the most acoustically sophisticated theatre in Central Europe at the time.
The former restaurant of the cultural house will be transformed into a common meeting point again. Margit Kovács ceramicist’s magnificent 1957 relief sculpture Körtánc (‘Round Dance’) can be found here, and the space, sliced up by white mosaic columns, will also feature real dancing to sets of exciting djs and producers.