Pro Architectura Award, 2013

The Pro Architectura prize is awarded as a prestigious official recognition by the ministry for outstanding architectural achievements of architects and designers. This year’s Pro Architectura prizes are ceremoniously handed over by dr. Sándor Pintér, Minister of Interior in the marble hall of the Ministry. In 2013 those buildings are awarded that have given…

A World Formulated into Architecture

The expositives below are unusual in our periodical, as they present a new building and a current event in a different way than usual. At the end of September an exhibition was opened in the Kepes Centre, Eger, documenting the activities of Dezső Ekler as an architect. And within a short time a complex of several buildings on Somló Hill designed by him…

Museo-logic

As the competition titled Liget Budapest inviting architectural ideas has come to an end, we have now the winning designs, and quite a few concepts that have been purchased too. After a longish prelude, and a lot of professional and political debates as well as non-professional discussions, the concept of the Museum District has come…

Transport Theme Park

One of the most extensive rust zones of Budapest, Rákosrendező depot railway station covers almost 100 hectares. This diploma design treats the revitalisation project of its communication routes in a generous way. Worked out as a concept of open-space architecture, it focussed on a 50 hectare part of the former railway zone bordered by a stream…

The Power in Consistence

Recently inaugurated, the building of Esterházy Mansion Etyek is an exciting experiment of reinterpreting local traditions and embedding them into contemporary context. The atmosphere of the Öreg-hegy („Old Hill”) region in Etyek is dominated by the tiny press-houses hiding among vineyards. The new building reflects the scale typical of its environment…

Self-Reflexive Vista

This mansion in Balatonfüred may as well be regarded as an exemplary design truly reflecting the approach of an architect ambitioning to deal with traditions. Deeply cut into the original steep line of the terrain, the site for the building also permitted to have a two-storey elevation facing south. A composition reflecting the understanding…

From an Industrial Zone to a Museum Quartier

Museo delle Scienze, or MUSE, is the new museum by Renzo Piano opened at the end of July in Trento. It became popular right then amongst locals by its nickname it received from its creators. The museum was built on the former and abandoned premises of Michelin in line with the development plans of the Trentino region driven by the ambition to…

Culture and Economy: South Tirol, Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Culture and economy were the keywords of the nationwide competition published in Italy for winning the title European Cultural Capital 2019. South Tirol submitted a joint application with venice and the northern Italian region for the call targeted to address the widest public possible, Bridging over regions, this competition regards versatility…

The Beginnings of Tourism at Adriatic Sea

Concerning the history of the Unger and Magyar families and its members who were excellent architects, the former Monarchy provides data about the educational history of the Nyolcak („Eights”) in the present-day Carpathian Basin. A descendant of this family, architect Antal Magyar bought a piece of land near Hercegnovi, on the outskirts…

From the Győr Programme to the Three-Year Plan

As the role and responsibility of architects are not only significant factors of the evolution of man-made environment, but also affect the efficiency of economy, whilst inseparable from history and all kinds of mechanisms controlling its power relations and inner operation, this kind of interpenetration makes the moral issues ensuing from professional…

The Eastern Religious Roots of Modernist Architecture

20th-century Modernism defined itself by using adjectives such as rational and functional, and emphasizing the roles and importance of technology and efficiency it distanced itself from its architectural historical background which it rated as overdecorated and burdened with a tradition that in time lost its meaning, clarity and impact. This way the Modernist…

To the Sociology of Architect Students of TU Budapest

Historians specialised in the architecture of the last but one turn-of-the-century realised at an early stage how important role artists of Jewish origins played in the Lechnerian school and in the whole evolution and flourishing of Hungarian Art Nouveau architecture. When trying to interpret the prominence of Jewish architects in the formation…