2011/3

Founded in Spain in 1592 by Saint Joseph Calasanctius, the Piarist order had its Hungarian convent established in 1717 on the motion of the council of the city of Pest in a small building right next to the city hall. Their second home here was in a corner building in the area bordered by today’s Galamb and Régiposta Streets and the Danube bank…

It is a rare occasion where the profession of developers is offered a place to have their voice heard in architectural periodicals. This phenomenon is in sharp contrast with the fact that in Budapest, for example, some building contractors have already invested just as much money in city development projects since the change of the political system…

There is hardly any old picture postcard of Paks from which the oversized Neo-Classicist elevation of Hotel Erzsébet built on the axis of the main street is missing. It is not the only reason why the building has grown into an iconic one of the town: as a relic of the early phase of the rise of the middle class it has preserved its original function for…

Instead of walls the elevations of RAM Cultural Centre appear more like papercuts: a series of bands of paper into which a design of openings was cut. The lack of traditional sections and the unusual proportions resulted in an abstract kind of spatial plastic art work. The playful mood of its designers is reflected in both the forms of the building and the UFO-like…

The building does not reveal its identity at first glance: it is featured by crystallized, white wall surfaces, grey steel window frames and large expanses of glass. It is only the recessed colour elevations, the cut-off corners and the wall surfaces meeting at an obtuse angle that make the mass of the building appear more dynamic.

László Kalmár and Zsolt Zsuffa attempted a formidable task when designing and constructing their glass palace right in the heart of Hévíz referred to now as the Beauty Centre. It is an euphemism of me to say that the urban structure, development and streetscapes of Hévíz are eclectic in style. Owing to prospering medical tourism…

The extension of the school in Zánka is worth analyzing from three aspects at least, concerning the relationship between the designer and the location in the narrower or wider sense of the word. András Krizsán was brought up in the vicinity and has been working here as a designer-architect for more than two decades now.

The tensions resulting from the co-existense of the old and the new as well as the presentation of the 21st century previous ages and their relative proportions are all issues to be tackled now. A monumental single-storey Eclectic-Baroque style building formerly housing the County Hall was a given in this case.

The total lack of tending and maintenance, the overwhelming intensity of motor vehicle traffic, the disproportionate dominance of land occupation and use for the purposes of car parking have resulted in so bad dilapidation in the square remodelled as a park with Roman ruins in 1968 that it has qualified it to be one of the developments included…

During the urban rehabilitation of Szolnok the banks of the River Tisza „could be returned” and the district called Tiszaliget on the other side could be connected to the inner city. Defended with a circular dam, the area on the left-hand bank has developed into one suitable for spending our free time. In order to improve life quality…

In the early 21st century our cities must face serious challenges. One of the most important issues is the unification of the economic processes in the world and their simultaneous basic reconfiguration. Parallel with the need to strengthen economic positions, there is another ambition for the future: that of sustainability.