The Mock-Up of the Parliament Building
Placed at the centre of the exhibition space is a large mock-up covered by a glass bell: it is a detailed, proportionally scaled, miniature replica of the Parliament building, which is the largest and most accurate representation of the legislative building ever made. Because of the 1: 100 scale ratio a human figure is one and a half to two centimetres, while the top of the dome rises up to a height of almost one metre. Based on the data alone, it is hardly surprising that a team of close to twenty people led by Péter Hajnal and Márton Bojti worked on implementing this small structure with its size being that of a smallish room. If visitors take a close look at the model, they will easily understand what took the creative team almost ten thousand hours of work, i.e. over a year of strenuous effort.
The mock-up depicts the Parliament building and part of Kossuth Square in a life-like way. Besides providing a replica of the facades, which can be viewed easily from the outside, and the roof, already more difficult to survey in real life, in one quarter of its area the mock-up is only built up to the level of the foundation walls; most of the important interiors can be observed in detail thanks to the sectioning of the wing of the main entrance, which contains the main staircase, and the northern wing, which once housed the Chamber of Peers. The perpendicular section lines meet in the central area of the building: the dome hall. Just like in the case of the exterior, all the statues, candelabras and minute details of the real building can be seen in the interior of the mock-up. Indeed, the lamps are even working and can emit light. The proportion between the dome hall and upper dome space above it is remarkable, just like it is quite surprising how small the huge session halls look in comparison to the whole building. This large-scale mock-up not only allows visitors to peak into areas that are usually inaccessible to them but also makes the whole structure and operation of the building more clear and understandable.
